


Redwood Conspiracy

by nic73



Category: The Mentalist
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-05
Updated: 2014-07-22
Packaged: 2018-01-22 01:06:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 28,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1570307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nic73/pseuds/nic73
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jane is just doing a good turn, how can it turn out so wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"Cho come with me. Grace put a trace on Jane's phone."

"What's wrong boss.?"

"The man's missing again."

"I thought he was with Rigsby?"

"Yes, well Rigsby popped into a store and left Jane in the car and when he came out there was no Jane. He's spent the past hour looking for him. if they weren't in such a remote place I would order Rigsby back and leave Jane where ever he is."

VanPelt looks up from the computer.

"Nothing from his phone boss."

"Nothing.?!"

"How can that be?"

"It must be turned off or the battery's been removed."

"Why on earth would Jane do that? Try again and keep trying."

"Will do boss and I'll call you as soon as I get anything. Good luck."

"It's Jane that's going to need luck when I get my hands on him."

The look on Lisbon's face has VanPelt almost feeling sorry for Jane.

Lisbon climbs into the driver's seat. She hands Cho the address and Cho inputs it into the sat nav and they turn out of the parking lot heading to the highway that will take them to the mountains. Lisbon is talking but not expecting Cho to answer, she's letting off steam.

"There's three hundred and fifty inhabitants in that town, how can Rigsby lose him. I should have sent you instead, but, I got tired of him waxing lyrical about the redwood trees. How old they are, how tall they are. He was all set to tell me their history from the year dot. This is probably payback for sending him, even though he wanted to go. He doesn't like it there and as somehow blamed me. He'll be sorry he ever mentioned a redwood tree when I get my hands on him."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jane's tired of sitting in the car so he gets out and leans against it facing the mountains. His feet crossed at the ankles and his arms folded against his chest. He takes deep breaths enjoying the fresher air away from Sacramento. A few minutes pass and his eyes move away from the mountains and sweep the neighbourhood. It sure is a pleasant place. There's just a couple of stores and a bar. There are a few houses dotted here and there, a very small school, with a park next to it. All of it seemingly, nestled within the trees although the highway isn't too far away. He eyes follow the movements of and old man leaving the store with two bags of groceries in his arms. He watches his progress as one of the bags doesn't look safe. Sure enough the bag in his left arm begins to topple. Jane gives a shout of warning, much too late, and the bag and it's contents hit the ground. Jane rushes over to help pick up the groceries. He approvingly notices the flavour of tea purchased. After they're all back in the bag Jane offers to carry the bag to the car.

"I don't have a car Sonny, I just walk. The towns not big enough to need one. The last one just rotted away in the front yard."

"Okay show the way."

They pass the outskirts of town and take the last left turn. The trees are denser here and the homes more private. Jane finds out the man's name is Jack, they chat amiably about the joys of living in this remote place. The more Jane hears the less he fancies it. Snow's not his favourite thing, great to visit, but not to live in. Apparently they end up being snowed in from Christmas until it thaws in March.

"Not your cup of tea then Sonny?"

Jane shakes his head.

"Growing up we always stayed away from the snow, bad for business. I prefer to feel the warmth of the sun on my face."

"Bah sun's overrated. It's a killer, where as snow keeps you fit. All that shovelling, and chopping of wood, keeps the muscles and your heart strong. The sun encourages laziness, sitting around because it's too hot to work, playing at the beach or the river. Sun worshippers, the only thing strong about them is their skin that turns to leather.

Jane laughs.

"That's true."

He'd already told the man how he grew up travelling with a carnival.

"How does a carny kid become a consultant with the CBI. You're not one of those charlatan psychics are you?"

Jane shakes his head and tells him:

"Just observant."

They come to a stop in front of a small house, set back among the trees.

"This is my place. Thank you Sonny for your help."

Jane's taken aback by its appearance. It has a female air about it, he'd figured that he man lived alone. The are frilly floral curtains in the window, the door's painted yellow and there are flower baskets in full bloom. Jane expected a rugged, sparse feel to the place.

"No problem, your place is lovely,"

"All my wife's doing. This was her world."

"Was?"

A wistful look crosses the man's face."

"Yes, she was brutally murdered six months ago. I came home to find her mutilated body in the kitchen. People told me I should pack up and leave. They don't understand how I can stay here..."

Jack stares at the house, when he turns towards Jane, his eyes are brimming, tears threaten to fall, but he doesn't seem to notice.

"... she loved this place. This is where we spent our entire married life. If I leave here, I lose her all over again. I haven't changed a thing since she left and I don't intend to. She worked hard to get it how she wanted it and it's the way I honour her memory.

"Any tea going. I noticed you have my favourite flavour."

"Didn't you say you were waiting for someone?"

Jane waves his hand dismissively.

"I'll send him a text and let him know where I am."

"Then come on in Sonny, it's the least I can do."

Jane takes out his phone but there's no service. He shrugs and puts it back in his pocket. He follows the Jack in to the kitchen, it's light oak cabinets, blue and white colour scheme, with floral highlights hide any hint of the violence that took part in this friendly, welcoming room. Jane puts the kettle on and readies the cups while Jack puts away his shopping. Jane spies a photo of Jack dressed in uniform and a they talk about his exploits in the war over their steaming cups. Each one of them is taken by surprise when the door bangs open.

Rigsby is waiting for Lisbon and Cho as they pull to a stop in the parking lot. They alight from the vehicle and Rigsby looks at Lisbon sheepishly.

"Sorry boss, I was only in the store a few minutes. I've searched the whole town and there's no sign of him, and no-one has seen him. I tried and tried his phone but there was an engaged signal and now nothing."

Cho looks around.

"He must be somewhere in the trees. It sounds like his phone has lost signal and the trees are the more likely culprit."

"Good idea Cho. Rigsby you check out the grocery store and ask who was in the store around the same time as you. It's a small enough town they may just remember. Find out if they live in the trees, there too much ground to cover, we need to narrow it down some. Cho and I will check the stores next door."

"Okay boss."

They meet up again by the car. Rigsby has a possibility, Jack Bowen, who lives past the edge of town among the trees. He left the store just a couple of minutes before Rigsby did. They climb into the car and follow the directions the store clerk gave them. They pull up in front of the house. They get out and knock on the front door. There's no answer so Lisbon sends Rigsby around the back. He's not gone long before they hear him shout with some urgency. Lisbon and Cho run to the back as Rigsby emerges with his gun drawn but pointing down. As they get to the doorway they see that the door is off its hinges. Someone opened that with some force. It's the only sign of disturbance in the room. Lisbon scans the room, which is empty except two cups opposite each other on the table in the middle of the room.

"Oh no."

She says with resignation as laying next to one of the cups is Jane's phone.

Jane stirs to consciousness puzzlement leading to realization as he struggles to move his arms. They're handcuffed and fastened to something up so he can't move them, and he's lying on a floor. He remembers tea with Jack…Jack

"Jack?"

"I'm over here Sonny. I thought you were never going to wake up."

Jane struggles to a sitting position. His hands are attached to ring on a fence post.

"How long have I been out?"

"Must be a couple of hours."

Jane looks around him, they're in a stable. He's in one stall and Jack is a couple of stalls away from him. There is hay spotted around.

"Are you okay?"

"Sure I'm fine, they didn't do anything to me, I guess they figure I'm too old to cause any trouble. Though you don't look much like a trouble maker. For a cop you let them take us pretty easy."

"I'm not a cop, I'm a consultant, who has a healthy respect for guns, especially when they're pointed at me. Did they say anything while I was out like a light? Do you know what they want?"

Jane see a flicker of something cross Jack's face before he replies.

"No, they didn't say anything."

"But that doesn't mean you don't know what they want. You're hiding something Jack."

"I have no idea. What are you doing?"

"Trying to get us out of here."

Jane is twisting his arms and his body, trying to reach his lock picking tool in the top pocket of his waistcoat. Jane stops his struggling when he hears the door opening. Two men enter, who Jane recognises from Jack's house. One is big, at least six-foot four, wearing jeans and a white t-shirt a size to small. He carries a rifle slung over his shoulder. The second man is Jane's height and wearing a grey suit with a white shirt. It's open at the collar. He's obviously the man in charge. They move past Jane and enter the Jack's stall, the big man unfastens him from his post and hauls him to his feet. They start back to the door. Jane decides to alert them to his presence.

"Hey where are you taking him?"

The smaller man stops in front of him.

"We're just going to have a little talk. You better start praying that, for your sake, he's co-operative and that I don't have to persuade him."

"I only met Jack for the first time today, what has this got to do with me?"

"Well, well, this is your unlucky day. Hopefully you made a good impression on him, and that he cares whether you live or die."

Before Jane understands what's happening the man pulls out a gun from his pocket and shoots at him . Jane's thrown back against the fence, hitting his head and yanking his arms. By the time Jane's recoveres his senses, the group has left the barn and the burly man is closing the door. Adrenalin kicks in, sending his heart rate soaring, he pants to slow it down. His shoulder hurts but not as badly as he expected, he twists his head trying to get a look at it, but he can't see. The fence catches his eye and he sees that some of it's damaged, it must have been hit by the bullet. He jerks his head trying, once more, to look at his shoulder and his head spins, he leans against the fence, closing his eyes, waiting for his head to clear. But that hurts too. He must have hit his head hard from the force of the bullet. As he takes stock of himself, he determines that, from the mild pain in his shoulder, and there's no blood dripping down his waistcoat, the bullet only grazed his shoulder. Either he's very lucky, or the man's a great shot. He banged his head good though and thinks that he may be bleeding from a cut at the back. There's nothing to do but rest for a while until Jack returns with some answers. Jane doesn't have to wait long before the door opens once again and Jack is led back into the stable. He looks none the worse for wear. This time he's accompanied by the burly man and a different man that Jane hasn't seen before. This one is about six-foot with a designer beard, dressed in jeans and a white t-shirt.

"Are you twins, or is it some kind of uniform?"

Jane thinks it's always best to open up some form of communication.

"Shut up wise guy."

The new guy throws a packaged sandwich into his lap. Jane looks down at it. He rattles his handcuffs.

"What am I suppose to do with that?"

The second man shrugs.

"That's your problem. When you're hungry enough you'll find a way."

The men leave.

"Are you all right Sonny, I had a look at you as I passed and it looks like the bullet grazed your shoulder."

"That's what I thought. What's going on Jack? What do they want from you?"

"I don't know, they've got the wrong man."

Jane rolls his eyes at him.

"There's no point lying to me Jack. I'm bleeding here, I deserve an explanation."

Jack avoids looking at Jane and lays down on the ground.

"You're best finding a way to eat your sandwich, you're going to need all your strength."

"How long before they come back?"

"Two hours."

"I take it, they don't want you dying during their interrogation techniques."

"Got it in one boy."

"Great"

Jane mutters under his breath. He turns his attention to the sandwich on his lap, it doesn't look very appetising but, who knows when he'll get to eat again. He looks at his hands and then back down at his sandwich. He shakes his legs to move the sandwich down to his knees. He grabs the sandwich in between his knees and slowly raises his legs. As they get closer to his hands he stretches his finger to try and grab the sandwich. His fingers miss by a couple of inches. He yanks his hands trying to cover the space, when he feels something move. He let's his legs drop and gets up on to his knees to have closer look. The wood around the ring's splintered. He realises the bullet must have hit it. He pulls some more and the rings moves just a little. He wiggles his feet, moving them forward from underneath him until he's in a crouching position. Sweat is dripping off him at the exertion. He rests for a minute, regaining his strength. On his feet he's able to get more momentum as he pulls. He's rewarded with the sight of the ring moving forward a little. He twists his hands back and forth, trying to work the pin holding the ring, loose some more. The handcuffs are digging in to his wrists, making them sting. He inches his feet back a little and pulls again. The ring moves forward some more. He drops to his knees as his thighs are aching from the strain. He lowers his head and wipes his brow with his arm and counts to ten. he moves back on to his feet, moving back an a couple of inches and pulls again. He barely registers the pain from his wrists as the handcuffs dig deeper, as the pin moves some more. . He moves backwards again and takes a deep breath. He gives one big pull and finds himself flat on his back as the ring comes flying out.

Jack's been lost in his own thoughts but hears Jane's yelp as he hits the floor.

"What's going on?"

"What's going on?...is that we're getting out of here."

Now that his hands are free from the post it's a simple matter of picking his lock, he thinks, but, his fingers are shaking, and have begun to lose feeling. He drops the pick in to the straw. He kicks at it wildly in frustration, sending the straw flying. Looking down he spots the pick just in front of him After a couple of attempts, he's successful in picking it up. He waits a moment, steadying himself and then reaches his fingers around, working the pick in to the lock. He smiles when he feels the handcuff release. He quickly unlocks the second one. There are big welts circling both wrists, he shakes his hands to stimulate the blood flow. He moves quickly over to Jack and releases him, as they pass by his stall he spies the sandwich and decides to take it with him. At the door Jane inspects the lock. He only heard a key being used as the men left. He tries his pick but it's too small. He spins around looking for anything they can use to break the door. At the back there are stairs leading to a platform and there's a door. They quickly make it up the stairs, they try the door and Jane can't believe their luck at finding it unlocked.


	2. Chapter 2

Jane puts his ear against the door and strains to hear any sound from the other side. Hearing nothing he slowly opens it a little and daylight greets him.. He peeks around the opening and is relieved to see stairs on the other side leading down to the ground and no one in sight. He turns to Jack and puts his finger up against his lips and then beckons him to follow. The stairs are similar to fire escape stairs, except they're wooden. As they descend Jane takes note of his surroundings. There's a big paddock in front of him and beyond that the woods. Over his shoulder on the left he can see a large house. It's an easy decision which direction they shall take. Keeping close th the stable they head towards the back. Jane stops a moment and listens for any sounds. All he can hear is a bird chirping. He turns to Jack.

"Are you ready to make a run for it?"

"Sure, are you? That's a nasty gash you have at the back of your head. You need some pressure on it."

"I'll be fine until we get to the trees and then I'll find something to hold against it. Shall we go?"

"After you Sonny."

To use the stable as a shield for as long as possible, they run in a straight line, hoping that no-one leaves the house before they're in the safe cover of the trees. It's further than it looks and Jane's concerned about Jack being able to make it across. He keeps looking back but Jack's keeping up with him. They make it into the trees without hearing any shouts behind them. Jane stops and leans his back against a tree, trying to catch his breath. He leans over placing his hand on his thigh for balance as he takes deep breaths. He feels a hand on his arm.

"You need to look after yourself a bit better Sonny, come we can't stop now, we have to get further away, we can take it easier though."

Jack moves past Jane who looks after him. The man seems barely out of breath. He's pulling some leaves off a nearby tree. He folds them together and holds them out to Jane.

"Here press these against your cut to try and stem the bleeding. I'll have a look at your shoulder when we're further away."

Jane stares at the leaves.

"No need for that Bear Grylls."

Jane takes a handkerchief out of his pocket and presses it against back of his head, he winces at the pain

"Great work at getting us out of there, you're more useful than you look."

Jane looks after Jack shaking his head, and gives a small smile as he pushes himself off the tree trunk and follows after him. He rushes to catch up with him and then falls in to step.

"I knew there was more to you than meets the eye."

"Shhh, no talking, save your breath, we need to keep moving."

"Do you know where we are?"

Jack looks sideways at him,

"Miles from anywhere."

"I was afraid of that."

As they head deeper in to the woods, the trees grow more dense and daylight becomes a scarce commodity, the light finding little pockets between the follege. Jane's head's stopped bleeding but's being replaced with a pounding headache. A flash of intense pain blacks out his sight for a moment and he miscalculates as he steps over a felled branch and hits his trailing foot and he falls to the ground. He feels a pain in his hand as he tries to protect himself. He feels a hand on his arm.

"Up you get Sonny."

Jane moves on to his knees.

"I think I'm fine, thanks for asking."

Jane's looking at his hand. There's a large sliver poking out from under his skin. He grabs a hold of it and pulls, the splinter breaks, leaving part of it buried.

"Shoot"

He stands up and brushes himself down. the debris falls off him, leaving dirt tracks on his clothes.

"We've only got about an hour left of usable light, we need to find a place where we can spend the night."

Jane looks around, the idea of spending the night in the middle of the woods, doesn't thrill him, but is glad to hear that they'll be stopping soon, hopefully after some rest his head will feel better. After a few minutes Jack stops and points to some deep undergrowth.

"Let's go see if that will work."

It turns out to be the perfect place, with room between the bushes and the trees for the two of them to lay down. "

"This should hopefully hide us and give us some warmth."

Jane sits down leaning against a trunk and closes his eyes. He hear Jack sit down against the next tree to his left.

"Do you know who these men are Jack? I know you know what they want, and have done since the beginning. I suspect Jack isn't even your real name."

"Did I see you pick up the sandwiches you were given?"

Jane opens one eye and looks over at him.

"Is that the way it's going to be. I deserve answers Jack, or whoever you are. I do a kind deed and end up knocked out, shot, bleeding, bruised.."

Jane holds up his wrists to show off the ugly bruising from the handcuffs.

"...the prospect of a long night in the woods and to cap it all.."

He looks down at himself:

"...this suit's ruined. And you want to share my sandwiches."

Jack laughs:"

Patience, patience, Sonny, I'll answer all questions later, as you said we have a long night ahead of us, why do everything at once. First we'll eat, then I'll take a look at you. Some sleep is in order and then we'll talk. For what it's worth, I'm sorry that you got caught up in this."

"I have disputes with the order of things but you're apology earns you a sandwich.

Jane removes the sandwiches from his jacket pocket and attempts to open the packet. With his sore wrists and the pain from the splinter and shoulder, it's not an easy task.

"Here, want some help?"

Jack reaches over to take the packet. Jane pulls it away out of his reach.

"Patience, patience,

Lisbon has set up a crime scene. The neighbours have come out to have a look at what the fuss is about. Rigsby has been assigned the job of taking their names and asking preliminary questions, hoping that someone has seen something. The local police station, a two man outfit, don't have a forensic department, so Lisbon has ordered a team up from Sacramento. She pulls on a pair of latex gloves, Cho is doing the same and they start a search of the house. Cho vocalise's the questions Lisbon's been asking herself.

"Why would some one take Jane in a remote place like this? He's an easy target anywhere he goes by himself, why wait until he's out here and why did they take the owner of this place and didn't just tie him up, or shoot him."

"I'm asking myself the same thing. Could the owner have been the target and Jane was in the wrong place at the wrong time?"

"Then you would think we would find Jane tied up or shot."

"When Van Pelt gets here, I want her looking into this man's background. Hopefully something will pop up and we'll have some idea where to start."

Lisbon and Cho have a look around the house, peering into drawers and cupboards but nothing remarkable's found and nothing to help find Jane. A despondent Lisbon's happy to be interrupted in her fruitless search by Rigsby who's finished his preliminary interviews.

"No-one saw anything boss. The houses are private around here, set among the trees it's hard to see what's going on in other people's home."

Lisbon's disappointed but not surprised, she'd noted the same thing as they made their way to Jack's house.

"Does any of them claim to know him well?"

Rigsby refers to his notebook.

"Kathy and Stanley Richards, they live two houses away, said they were on good terms when Jack's wife was alive but now they only talk to him in passing. And get this boss, his wife was murdered, he found her body in the kitchen."

"Thanks Rigsby, we'll have Van Pelt pull up all the information on the murder, talk to the local police and see if they caught the person responsible and anything else that might be useful. Cho and I will talk to the Richards."

"Will do boss."

Lisbon gives orders to the local sheriff to keep the crime scene secure until forensics arrive, while she and Cho talks to the neighbours. Kathy and Stanley, invite them to sit down in their comfy living room. Kathy plays hostess and asks if they would like a drink. They both refuse but the request hits Lisbon hard as it brings home the reality of Jane's disappearance, when the request doesn't bring forth the usual response: 'Yes, I'd love some tea.' It must have shown in her eyes as Stanley leans towards her.

"Are you all right Agent? are you sure you don't want a drink?"

Cho looks at her with concern. Lisbon recovers herself.

"It's nothing really, I'm fine. Now Mr. Richards..."

"Stanley, please, we don't stand on ceremony here."

"Okay Stanley, you told my colleague that you were close to Jack Bowen."

"Yes, once upon a time, we were as thick as thieves. The wives were always in each others houses and we would go play Bridge every week, without fail, on a Friday night. But after his wife was murdered, Jack became a recluse, he rarely left the house and shunned all our efforts to be friendly to him. If I was out in the garden, as he walked by on his way to the store, he would say hi, but he never stopped to talk, or accept an invite for a drink."

"Have long have you known him?"

Kathy's back with a drink for her and Stanley and she settles in a chair next to him. She answers the question.

"We moved in to our respective homes within six months of each other. That would be going on for thirty-seven years now."

She looks to her husband for confirmation and he nods.

"They were here first and Mae, his wife, brought us over some sandwiches and a cake she'd baked while we were surrounded by boxes without any idea where the kitchen stuff was. Mae and me became firm friends from that day."

"I understand she was murdered, what happened?"

Kathy nods her head but it's Stanley who answers the question after placing a comforting hand on top of his wifes.

"About six months ago Jack came home to find her dead in the kitchen. She'd been mutilated but the cops have no idea who did it. They hauled Jack in, asking him questions for hours, not our local police, but some out of towners. Jack hasn't been the same since."

"What did Jack do for a living?"

"Something in sales, it used to take him out of town every couple of months or so. Otherwise he kept good hours, always home for dinner and weekends off, and seem to pay well too. He didn't talk about it too much. He said it was just away to get the money to do nice things with his wife. He adored his wife, treated her like a queen."

Lisbon stands up and takes out a card.

"Thank you for talking to us. If you remember anything else that might help us, please give me a call."

Forensics have arrived and are busy dusting the place and putting down their yellow markers. Rigsby makes his way towards them.

"forensic says there isn't much to go on. They doubt there's anything useful, but they'll get whatever they can."

He continues looking through his notes.

"They never found the murderer of his wife, but the case was conducted by a federal unit, they are sending Van Pelt what information they have."

Lisbon looks over at the house, wondering where he could be and praying he's still alive.

"It's beginning to get dark, let's get back to Sacramento, I doubt we'll find anything useful here. But I don't thing it's Jane who's the target, I think it's linked to Jack Bowen's past. Perhaps VanPelt can tell us something."

She's not sure why she thinks that and she's not sure whether that's a good thing for Jane or not. When they arrive back she enters her office to put her bag away and she jumps when her phone rings, She doesn't have time to say hello when Bertram's voice is in her ear.

"Agent Lisbon, I need you in my office right away."

"Sir, Jane's missing, I need to be here conducting the investigation."

"I know Jane's missing, but I also know I have the state head of the CIA here wanting to know why you're looking into a Jack Bowen."


	3. Chapter 3

Jane didn't realise how hungry he was until he had his first bite. It was as awful as pre-packed sandwiches usually are, but, it felt good to put something in his stomach. What he needs now is a cup of tea. He hears movement from Jack and turns to see him, in the little remaining light, standing up and he making his way over to Jane.

"Let's have a look at you Sonny before the light leaves us completely."

Jane leans his head forward so Jack can see the gash in the back of his head. He winces when Jack touches hair that blood has mattered to the cut.

"It looks like it's stopped bleeding, but you could do with stitches in it. It's a good job you have a fine head of hair to cover up the nasty scar you will have there."

He then moves to his shoulder, the blood is minimal so he's not concerned with it. The shooter is quite a marksman, they will have to remember that, it will make things difficult. Then he gently takes Jane's wrists, the damage he caused himself getting free from the handcuffs is plain to see in bruising and welts and some broken skin.

"You've been through the wars, how's the head?"

Jane shrugs:

"Hurting."

"Anything else?"

"Just a splinter but we'll never get it out in this light."

Jack straightens up.

"Well I think you'll survive the night and live another day."

"That depends if they find us."

Jack pats his shoulder.

"No need to worry on that score Sonny, they have no intention of killing you straight away, you're too valuable to them."

"That's what I'm worried about. They want something from you and they're going to use me to get it. But whatever it is, was too important for you to even save your wife."

Jack stops in his tracks and turn to Jane.

"That's very perceptive of you. This time they think if I witness it personally that I will divulge."

"But you won't."

"No, sorry Sonny, I can't."

Jack settles himself against his tree.

"You lay back and get some sleep. As they haven't caught us yet, I think they were late discovering we were missing, and it seems they decided to wait until morning to come after us, but I will take first watch, just in case. They'll start out at first light so we need to go then."

"We're sitting ducks here Jack, they'll find us, they can move much quicker than we can."

"Any suggestions?"

"Yea, tell them what they want to know and leave me out of it."

Jack chuckles:

"Go to sleep Sonny."

 

Lisbon stops a moment to compose herself before knocking on Bertram's door. Her heart sank as the words CIA and Jack Bowen were connected. This can't be good, for the investigation or for Jane. She talked to Van Pelt to hear what she'd found out but there was nothing, not for the Jack Bowen they are interested in. Not even the death of his wife surfaced. That was extremely puzzling. Van Pelt said it's not easy to wipe away all trace of a story.

"Not, if it never left the confines of the small community."

Lisbon is sure of one thing, this is going to get messy. Bertram invites her in in reply to her knock. Her eyes immediately go to the man with Bertram in the room. He's looks like a regular guy. He stands and holds out his hand in greeting, with a warm smile on his face. He's tall, about Rigbsy's height. His hair cut short with just a hint of grey. His eyes a soft blue surrounded by laughter lines. His pleasant face is finished off with a dimple on his right cheek that comes and goes as he speaks.

"Agent Lisbon, a pleasure to meet you. I just wish it was under different circumstances."

Lisbon's thrown. She was expecting paranoia mixed with aggression and territorial behaviour. She stammers out her reply.

"Pl..pl...pleasure to meet you to eh?"

"Sorry that was rude of me not to introduce myself. I'm Agent Collins."

He still has a hold of her hand.

"Pleasure Agent Collins."

He gives her another smile and drops her hand. Bertram invites her to take a seat.

"I'd rather not sit down sir, I need to get back to the investigation.. "

Speaking more forcefully:

"Sit down Agent Lisbon."

"Sir.."

"I said sit down."

Lisbon sees nothing for it but to oblige. Bertram nods his head.

"Thank you Agent. I'm ordering you to stop your investigation..."

Lisbon is out of her chair.

"You can't ask me to do that! Jane is missing, my partner. Who knows what he's got himself mixed up with this time..."

She gives a sideways look to Agent Collins who has a smile on his face.

"...you can't ask me to do nothing, just leave him to his fate..."

"The CIA are going to take charge..."

"Is it the CIA that investigated the murder of Bowen's wife because that looks more like a cover up. Is that what the CIA really have planned for Jane?"

Lisbon can see that Bertram is losing his patience, he points a finger at her.

"Sit down Agent."

Lisbon stares at him. Agent Collins stands up and enters the conversation. He sweeps his arm towards her vacant chair, giving her that smile again.

"Please take a seat Agent, I can understand your concern and believe me we want to find your missing friend and Jack Bowen as much as you do."

One look at Lisbon tells him he's said the wrong thing.

"Okay probably not as much as you do, he's your partner after all, but Jack was a valuable member of our team and we don't want to see anything happen to him."

"Do you know who took them?"

Agent Collins nods his head.

"We have a pretty good idea."

"Do you know where they are?"

Agent Collins entwines his fingers and places them on his knees.

"No. We have a couple ideas that we're checking out, but they could be somewhere completely different."

"Is Jane in danger?"

Collins doesn't look at her as he replies.

"I'm afraid he is."

"Then I'm not giving up the investigation."

"I'm afraid I have to insist you keep out of this investigation."

"Why."

Bertram answers this one.

"Because Jane could be an accomplice rather than a victim."

Lisbon stares at Bertram in disbelief. She opens her mouth to speak and he holds up a hand.

"I don't want to hear it Agent. Collins here is in charge of the investigation, it's the CIA, and they always hold the trump card. You are to step down as of right now."

"But sir…"

Bertram cuts her off by turning to Collins.

"Lisbon and her team will co-operate and give you all that they have and answer any questions."

Bertram stands up and extends his hand to Collins. The agent stands also and takes it. He turns to Lisbon, while buttoning his jacket.

"I can assure you that we'll do all we can to find your colleague and bring him home safely Agent Lisbon. I have a couple of things to do and then I will need an update."

Collins gives her that smile again. Lisbon takes his proffered hand and he heads towards the door. Lisbon follows, as she gets to the door she hears Bertram:

Just a minute Agent Lisbon there's something else I want to discuss with you now that your time's freed up."

Collins also heard looking back he sees Lisbon roll her eyes and mentally count to ten before turning around and going back into the room closing the door.

"Take a seat Agent."

Lisbon does so reluctantly. Bertram's intercom springs to life and his secretary's voice tells him that his four o'clock for tomorrow just cancelled. Bertram's thanks her, he opens the top drawer of his desk and takes out a wipe and uses it to clean his hands.

"I don't know about you Agent Lisbon but I don't like the CIA, and I don't trust them."

Lisbon face becomes a picture of surprise.

"You think I really bought their bull story about Jane being a possible accomplice? I don't trust those guys, never have, never will. If you want to get Jane back alive you need to find a way to keep yourself a part of this investigation."

"Surely that would have been easier if you hadn't ordered me to stay out of it."

"I had to make Agent Collins think we are co-operating."

"But how am I suppose to do that sir?"

"You're a resourceful agent, surely you've learnt a thing or two from Jane after all these years."

"But sir…"

"Ask yourself what would Jane do."

Bertram looks at his watch and stands up.

"I have somewhere to be Agent, so if you don't mind…"

Lisbon rises.

"Of course sir."

She turns to leave the room once more, wondering how on earth she's going to get Agent Collins to put herself and her team back on the case.

By Jack's reckoning it's Jane's turn to take watch. He's impressed with how soundly he's been sleeping in the uncomfortable conditions. The man was asleep in minutes and hasn't stirred. Just as well, he's going to need his strength today. He goes over to him and shakes him awake. Jane opens his eyes and is instantly alert.

"Your turn Sonny. If you hear anything that alarms you wake me up immediately."

Jane sit up and stretches, then moves over to his tree and leans against it and Jack takes his place, figuring the spot will be warm from Jane's body heat and it must be comfortable.

"Deep in the forest in the middle of the night I think that most sounds will alarm me."

Jack smiles.

"Well try to keep it to sounds possibly made by humans and keep awake."

Jack settles himself down and closes his eyes. Jane looks around at the blackness that surrounds him and lets out a sigh.

He hates surveillance at the best of times but here in the middle of the night and who know where, it's going to be intermiable, nothing to do and no-one to talk to. He wonders about Lisbon and the team. He knows they'll be doing all they can to find him but he can't depend on them as there'll have powerful forces trying to stop them. He's has to find away out of this or life's going to get very unpleasant for himself. Being a resourceful man there are many options open to him and he spends his watch mulling through them, tossing aside the ones that would end in his death - or worse, and examining the remaining ones to find the one that has the best chance of bringing the desired result. Unfortunately the best plan has a forty percent chance of success. Not the best odds he's had to work with but he's had worse.

CBI headquaters is in semi darkness except for the light glowing in Lisbon's office. She's at her desk staring aimlessly at her computer and she goes over in her head the play she has to make. There's a knock at her door and she looks up to see Agent Collins in the doorway. She waves him in and he gives her that smile and takes the chair she offers him.

"I want to apologise Agent Lisbon, I know that this must be very difficult for you but I assure you that we will do the best we can to bring your consultant back alive."

"And what if he's guilty of being an accomplice?"

Collins shift uneasily in his chair.

"I said we would do our best to bring him back alive, but if he's mixed up in this then he'll be taken in to custody."

"What evidence do you have?"

"I'm sure you realise that I can't indulge that information. I know it's a shock, it always is, but we don't make these types of allegations lightly."

"It's very hard for me to believe, we've worked together for so long and he's such an asset to the team..."

Lisbon lets the sentence hang unfinished.

Agent Collins leans in interested in what she's leaving unsaid and prompts her.

"But Agent Lisbon?"

Lisbon remains quiet and looks uncomfortable.

"What is it Agent Lisbon? If you know something they it's your duty as an officer of the law and as a citizen of the United States to share that information."

Collins is watching Lisbon carefully and can tell when she makes the decision to talk.

"I was upset when I left Bertram's office, Jane could be in all sorts of trouble and your wasting time investigating him as an accomplice...a seemingly ridiculous idea. He has disdain for all authority and is too unruly and unpredictable. Sleeper agents try to fit in with society not fight against it."

"I never said anything about him being a sleeper agent."

"I know."

Lisbon looks distressed. Agent Collins sits back in his chair and folds his arms.

"I think you better tell me all that you know Agent Lisbon."


	4. Chapter 4

Lisbon waves Cho in who's standing outside the door. She makes the introductions.

"Agent Collins this is my second in command Agent Cho."

Agent Collins doesn't get out of the chair but nods his head and turns to Lisbon.

"What's going on Agent Lisbon? I thought this was a private conversation."

"It's quite alright Agent Cho knows all about it. Please sit down Cho."

Cho moves one of the chairs from under the table beside the door and sits down next to Agent Collins, he places a folder he's holding on his lap and looks to Lisbon to continue.

"I told my team when I returned from our briefing that we were off the case and why and your suspicions about Jane. I expected them all to laugh and dismiss it like I did. Ten minutes later Cho knocks on my door and tells me he needs to talk to me about something very important. When I signalled him to come in he had that folder in his hand. Tell him what you told me Cho."

"As I'm sure you've looked in to Jane's background and you know about his tragic story.."

Agent Collins nods his head.

"Yes the murder of his wife and child"

"And that he grew up in the carnie circuit and that he joined the CBI to track down Red John."

Agent Collins gives Cho that smile.

"Yes we know all that. It doesn't mean he's not working with the kidnappers."

Cho looks at Lisbon and then at Agent Collins.

"No it doesn't"

Agent Collins shifts in his chair, his interest now piqued.

"Are you saying Agent Cho, that you have your suspicions?"

Cho looks at Lisbon again and then back at Collins.

"Yes. It happened by accident. I'd spent the night at a girlfriends and took my morning jog in a different park than normal and I saw Jane. He didn't see me, he back was towards me, but Jane has a pretty distinctive look and I knew it was him. What caught my eye was that the man handed Jane a gun. I just caught a glimpse of it as it exchanged hands. Jane always says he hates guns. Jane was playing it cool, he's a master at it but the other man was being furtive but trying to hide it, if you know what I mean. Looking around while trying to look like your not looking around. The man then got up and walked away. I made sure my jog caused me to cross paths with him and I accidentally bumped in to him. In the few words that passed between us I discovered that he was foreign, somewhere in the middle east is my guess."

Collins nods at the folder.

"So what do you have in there?"

"I did a little digging on my own time. After the death of his family Jane went in to a psychiatric hospital, I believe that that Patrick Jane never left."

"So how come you're only telling your boss now?"

"Because I don't have anything concrete. it's just suspicion. But then with what has happened, I thought I should let her know."

He hands Collins the folder and while he looks at it Lisbon takes up the story.

"After Cho came to see me, I remembered how Jane wanted to go with Rigsby to Redwood Creek."

"He asked to go?"

"Well that's not Jane's way but he annoyed me until I wanted him out of my sight. If Jane is a double agent Collins you're dealing with a very clever man. He works differently than anyone you've come up against."

"I'm sure we can handle him."

"The last person who tried that lasted two days before his career was in tatters."

"So what do you suggest Agent Lisbon?"

Lisbon's eyes grow dark.

"If what Agent Cho says is true, he's been deceiving me for ten years, making a fool out of me and laughing at me behind my back. I want to get him. We know how he works, we can be of help. If he's been using us, we want to make him pay."

Lisbon has her fingers mentally crossed that this rather dubious play will work. It's not up to Jane's standard but hopefully it's good enough. If there's one thing that Lisbon has learnt from Jane, it's that the best plays are based on some truth. Cho did come upon Jane in a park near his girlfriends, and he was in discussion with a man, the guy looked middle eastern but was homeless and Jane was sharing some food with him. In the file is an artist sketch of the guy and a bogus report that has a mismatch of DNA between two 'Patrick Janes'..

Agent Collins looks up from the file.

"This is very interesting Agent Lisbon, Agent Cho. Good work. Having read up on Patrick Jane he is, shall we say, an unusual character. I can see how having people who know him well on my team being advantageous."

Lisbon is just slightly nodding her head in agreement, another trick she's learnt from Jane.

Collins looks at the file once more and then up at Cho and Lisbon.

"Yes, I think you will be very helpful. Betrayal is hard to take and harder to forgive. If your Mister Jane is a double agent and, with what you've given me, I strongly believe that he is, then you can be very helpful now that you're on my side."

"We are most certainly on your side. I've risked my career too many times for that jerk to put up with being made a fool of."

Collins stands up and Lisbon and Cho follow. He extends his hand towards Lisbon with that smile in place

"Welcome to the team Agent Lisbon and Agent Cho."

Lisbon takes his hand and smiles back.

"Thank you Agent Collins we look forward to working with you."

"Get some sleep and we'll convene here at seven."

"We'll be here."

Collins leaves the room and Lisbon and Cho look at one another. Lisbon murmurs:

"Barnum's right. There's one born every minute. Now lets find Jane and keep him safe."

 

Jack wakes to the sound of twigs cracking. He's alert in seconds, looking around him, he can't see Patrick. He crawls on his hands and knees to the nearest tree and scuttles behind it. The sound's very near and then he hears Patrick's voice:

"Jack you can come out from behind the tree, it's only me."

Jack closes his eyes as relief rushes over him. He stands up and brushes himself down while coming out from behind the tree.

"Where did you go Sonny, you gave me the fright of my life!"

"Oh I doubt that. I'm sure you've had bigger frights. I've scoured the area, looking for ways to get us out of this mess."

"It's barely light."

Jane points to his eyes.

"Green eyes like a cat, very useful."

"I'm sure they are. So what have you come up with Tigger?"

"Oh a change of nickname. Tigger?...I'll take it"

"Well…"

"The first order of business is to buy us some time to put more distance between us and them. I've walked back and forth in a few directions to confuse them."

"In the dark you could have seriously hurt yourself."

"Cat's eyes remember. Once my eyes adjusted and the sun began to show a hint of dawn I was able to see well enough, plus running into low hanging branches only helped my case."

"Except there'll be evidence of only one person instead of two."

"I dealt with that."

Jane puts a hand inside his jacket pocket.

"I also found some berries, here's yours."

Jack holds out his hand and Jane pours the berries in to it.

"I presume that they're edible."

"Well I haven't dropped dead yet, or thrown up."

"You have been a busy boy."

"Surveillence sucks. Now let's get going, we don't want to lose more time."

Jack follows Jane as he heads off but after fifteen minutes Jane pulls out a leafy branch from a hedge. He changes direction and starts sweeping their footprints away.

"What are you doing."

"Well every other direction they take the foot prints stop, this one can't be any different."

"Okay, but aren't we heading back the way we came?"

Jane stops his sweeping and gives the man a delighted smile.

"Of course! Where else would we go."

 

Lisbon and the team meet up early at O'Malley's.

"We hooked Collins but this is a dangerous play, especially for Jane, we've painted him a traitor.."

Rigsby interrupts

"How are we going to get him out of that one?"

"There's no real evidence in the file, just a photo of him with a homeless man, so, easy enough for Jane to prove. We just have to make sure we get him out alive."

"So what do we do now?"

"Just go along with whatever Collins says. We have to make him trust us so he will take us along when they find where Jane is."

Van Pelt sits back, the worry for her colleague etched on her face.

"Do you think they will find him? If it's some international terrorist organization surely they'll be well hidden, they may have taken them out the country by now."

"There's a lot of intelligence gathering out there, and Collins seemed to have a good idea who took them. I don't think it will take long before they locate them."

Cho pipes in:

"What I don't understand is why they took Jane in the first place. Why do they need him? Best play would've been to leave him dead at Bowen's place."

"I don't know, but I'm glad they didn't."

Cho's phone starts buzzing and Lisbon's immediately follows. He glances at it.

"It's Collins, we better get over there."

Each member stands up from the table.

"We better not all arrive together, give us two minutes Van Pelt and Rigsby and then follow."

"Sure boss."

 

After ten minutes Jane discards the branch.

"Why are we going back?"

"Where is the last place they will expect us?"

"That's definitely true but it's still foolhardy."

"It's the only place that we know where it is? We don't know what direction we need to take to get out of here, or how far away we are from civilization. That only thing we do know is that place."

"And what are we going to do when we get there."

Jane stops letting out an exaggerated sigh. He looks at Jack and holds up a finger as if to make a point. He then drops his hand.

"I'm sure we'll come up with something between us."

 

When Lisbon and Cho arrive at CBI Collins is there with four other agents, three male and two female. He makes quick introductions and then turns to the case board. Just then Rigsby and Van Pelt arrive and the introductions repeated.

Collins has some photos in his hand. He pins them on the board and there are photos of three different locations.

"Here are the places that we know the group we suspect took Bowen and Jane uses."

"Who are they?"

Collins looks at Lisbon with that smile.

"It's not necessary for you or your team to have that information. You are here on a strictly need to know basis."

"It would be helpful to know who we're dealing with."

"You just need to know they are clever and ruthless."

Lisbon doesn't like the sound of that.

Collins turns back to the board.

"I have a team checking each one out and then we'll hit the one our intelligence tells us is the most likely place where they're being held."

Lisbon raises her hand.

"What are our orders concerning Jane, friend or foe?"

"No matter what we find there we treat him as the enemy. It'll be up to him to prove his innocence."

.


	5. Chapter 5

"So Jack, I seem to remember you were going to give me an explanation. Food, sleep and chat, in that order."

"I get the idea Sonny that there isn't much I need to tell you. Why don't you tell me what you've figured out and I'll fill in what I can."

"Well that's not quite our agreement but okay."

Jane stops and bends down, he picks up a broken branch and tears off the straggling twigs. He leans on it, testing its strength and finding it just the right length, he strides on using it as a walking stick. Jack has looked on amused, he shakes his head and falls in beside him.

"You worked for the CIA or some other spy type organization, you were high up in the organisation, a high security clearance. By your fitness levels, I would say you were out in the field, not a desk job. You retired to live out the rest of your days with your beloved wife, but you know something that someone ruthless wants, but it's highly classified and compromises the safety of the country if you disclose it. They killed your wife… how am I doing so far?"

"You're doing very well Sonny."

"What I don't understand is where I fit in to the equation. Why do they think that torturing me will make you give up the information when the threat to your wife didn't. I can't believe the line that they think you won't have the stomach for it. I think you can stomach anything and have probably dished out worse yourself."

"That is a miscalculation on their part. If they catch us, I won't give the information up Sonny."

"That isn't an answer."

"It's all I can give you."

"A great sharing of knowledge there Jack. If I'm going to suffer a torturous death, don't you think I have the right to know."

"If I told you, I would have to kill you myself."

Jane looks at him out of the corner of his eye.

"I think I'd rather take my chances with you."

Jack chuckles.

"Look I'm not asking for you to give up national secrets, I want to know why I'm here, why I'm caught up in all of this and not lying dead on your kitchen floor."

"You were at the wrong place at the wrong time..."

"Tell me something I don't know."

Jane grabs Jack's arm and turns him to face him, he searches his face closely, Jack stares over his left shoulder, never making eye contact with Jane.

"Aha! You had a friend, a good friend, from childhood."

Jacks startled eyes dart to Jane. Jane look triumphant.

"Yes! Something happened to him...something terrible...something you watched...something you blame yourself for...and something you're ashamed of."

"C'mon we need to hurry if we're going to get back to the house before the search party does."

Jack goes striding off. Jane shrugs, content that he's got a least a little of the puzzle. Stick in hand he catches Jack up."

"Have you thought of a plan for when we get there?"

"Have you? I'm open to ideas."

"If I were in your shoes I would be heading as far away from here as possible."

"We could never out run them. I do have a plan, a simple plan, those are always the best I think."

"So what is it?"

"Well I'm not going to tell you. Why don't you guess. That seems to be the way this relationship works."

"Since you probably need my help, it's in your best interests to tell me."

"All in good time Jack, all in good time."

This time Jane strides ahead. Jack calls after him.

"Are you always this infuriating?"

Jane smiles.

"You've seen nothing yet!"

Soon they see that the trees are thinning out, they can see the field they ran across a head of them. They come to a stop.

"Okay Sonny the plan?"

Jane looks at Jack.

"We're going to steal a car."

"That's what you've come up with!"

"Do you have a better one. It's simple and neat. We break in, hot wire it and get out of here."

"They'll only chase after us."

"Not if we disable any other vehicles first."

"You know how to break in and hot wire a car?"

"Don't you, surely they taught you that at spy school. It have been in Spy Skills 101."

"I haven't done it in a long time."

"Has it happens I did it only last week, so I'll take that job."

"Really, police work calls for that sort of thing."

"Eh no, I just like to keep my skills honed. Something you should consider."

They're at the edge of the trees, keeping hidden but looking out across the field. The barn obscures most of their view of the yard in front of the house.

"We can't risk going across that field again..."

Jack points his finger to the left.

"..But it looks like we can follow the tree line all the way to the entrance gate."

When they reach the gate there are two vehicles in the yard. One is a pick up truck and the other a sedan. The yard is empty of people. Jane turns to Jack.

"You take out the pick up truck and I'll get the sedan open, that will be quicker, just hope they're good at keeping it full of gas."

Jack creeps over to the pick up keeping low. He spies a broken bottle on the ground and picks up a big shard and thrusts it into the two tyres on the side of the truck facing away from the house. He looks back and Jane is sitting in the car. Jane sees him and waves him over, once he's close he starts it up and is turning the car around before Jack's settled in his seat. Jane looks through the rear view mirror as he speeds away but there is no movement from the house. He puts his foot hard on the accelerator and works on getting as much distance as he can as quickly as possible.

Five minutes out and there's no sign of anyone following them, Jane hasn't recognised any of the road signs but Jack seems to know where they are and is giving directions. It's a remote area, they haven't seen many other cars on the road.

"How far away are we from safety Jack?"

"There's a town coming up in about fifteen miles."

"Excellent!"

Suddenly an SUV coming in the opposite direction swerves in to their path. Jane's taken by surprise, he manages to turn the car out of its path but the car skids and he's struggling to get it under control. The car is off the road and there's nothing Jane can do to stop it hitting a tree at great force. Air bags blowing out of the dashboard is the last thing Jane's aware of before his world turns to black.

To Jane it feels as if he's struggling through a thick fog with tentacles that keep trying to pull him back down in to the darkness. He's aware of pain, and slowly remembers the car heading towards them, he manages to open his eyes. He doesn't recognise where he is, the room is dark. He's surprised to find himself sitting in a chair, when he tries to move, his limbs won't obey his commands. His arms are fastened behind him and to the chair and his legs are also attached to the chair. Most disconcerting of all to Jane is that he's been stripped of his vest and shirt, he's only wearing his trousers. His eyes have adjusted to the darkness, the room is sparsely furnished, he can make out two empty chairs in front of him just a few feet a way and a small table tucked in the corner. Fear settles in the bottom of his stomach, this is not good at all. Another thought occurs to him.

'Where's Jack?'

The team have been left twiddling thumbs while they wait for the FBI to decide which property they hit. Van Pelt has been clicking on her computer and she calls Lisbon over.

"There's something fishy here boss."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm tracing that call that sent Rigsby and Jane to interview that witness and it didn't originate from where we thought it did."

"Okay, so where did it originate from?"

"Here in Sacramento, from a payphone just four blocks from where Jane's motel is."

"Are you saying Jane made the call?"

Van Pelt shrugs.

"I can't say."

"Check if there are any surveillance tapes in that area, and pull them for the time surrounding the call."

"Will do boss."

Lisbon goes into her office wondering what it might mean. Did Jane set this up and purposely get himself in the car with Rigsby or did someone set him up. She mentally shakes her head, there wouldn't have been any way to predict that Jane would annoy her enough that she would send him. That means that they didn't care who she sent or Jane set this up himself. Neither one made any sense. She heads out to the bullpen.

"Van Pelt, when the tape comes through have Rigsby and Cho look at it, I want you to check and see if Jane has any connection with that area?"

"Jane boss?"

"Yes, Jane."

Van Pelts attention's drawn to the computer with the announcement of a pop up.

"The tape is here. There wasn't a camera close enough to the phone booth to be able to see who made the call but there are camera's at the intersections at both ends of the block. They take in part of the side walk, it's the best I could do. Some of the business may have their own camera's but that would take time to collect."

"Time we don't have. Let's hope that these are enough."

Rigsby, Cho and Lisbon takes chairs around the table and begin to watch the tapes. As Van Pelt said the camera's are there for the intersection but a small portion of the side walk is visible. The time stamp shows the tapes start half an hour before the time of the phone call and half an hour afterwards. They watch closely on double speed, changing it to normal time at ten minutes before the phone call. After they get to the end, Lisbon sits back in her chair, there's no sign of Jane. Cho voices her continuing concern

"Doesn't mean he wasn't there boss, we know Jane's too good to get caught on camera."

Lisbon glances at Van Pelt who's looking puzzled at the computer.

"Have you found something?"

"The CIA did a really good job with Bowen's trail, I would never know that he wasn't who he said he was, but his wife, there's barely anything about her."

"She probably didn't work after they were married."

"She didn't do anything after her marriage, no parking tickets, no credit cards nothing. There's no traceable history at all."

"There isn't even a record that they were ever married."

"Her neighbours said that her maiden name was Shelburn, check under that name."

Lisbon's phone starts ringing, she checks the ID.

"It's Collins."

She listens to what he has to say.

"We'll be ready."

She closes the phone and looks to her team.

"They've decided on a place and we have to leave in fifteen minutes. You found anything yet Van Pelt?"

"Working on it...Oh"

Everyone looks towards her at the tone of her voice.

"What is it."

"There were some Shelburns that worked the carny circuit."

"Your kidding me. Did they work with Jane's carnival."

"It doesn't say, but that's quite a co-incidence boss."

Lisbon flops down on to a nearby chair. She doesn't understand what's going on but she's beginning to feel that Jane manipulated her. it just better be for a good reason.

Jane's conducting an examination of his condition after the crash. He seems to be in one piece, his face hurts, he suspects from taking the brunt of the exploding dashboard, a small price to pay for not hitting the steering wheel. From his fogginess he suspects he was drugged to keep him unconscious while they got him back to the house and undressed and shackled. He's still having problems concentrating. He suspects he's in a basement, it has that feel about it. He can feel something hot behind him, there some sort of heating on despite the warm weather, he wonders what that's about. His thoughts are interrupted as he hears a noise, it sounds like footsteps coming down stairs, so he's right about the basement and then he hears a door behind him open.


	6. Chapter 6

Jane made out four different footsteps and they're all standing before him now. The three men who he saw in their visits to the barn and Jack. The man in charge, the one that shot him speaks.

"I figured you would be awake by now Mr. Jane."

"So you know my name, care to share yours?"

"Of course it would only be polite. My name is Michael Rollins. You're a resourceful man despite appearances."

"Thank you. I do my best."

"My understanding is that your best is very good. I've been reading about you Mr. Jane while you were sleeping. You work with the cops."

Jane puts on an offended face.

"I would've put my skills at better than very good."

Rollins shrugs.

"Maybe so. Now I'm going to ask you a question and I suggest you be very careful how you answer."

Jane is aware of one of the other men in the jeans and t-shirt brigade has moved behind him. He hears a clanking noise but he can't put together what the sound means.

"What brought you to Lassen Valley?"

"I was accompanying my colleague following up on a tip we received about a possible witness."

"Wrong answer Mr. Jane."

Jane screams as his left shoulder explodes in pain and heat.

Lisbon and the team are dressed in their CBI vests and are listening to Collins as he stands in front of a board with a plan of the place they're going to invade in the hopes of finding Jane and Jack Bowen. Her team have been given the out buildings to search while the FBI storm the house. The team had exchanged glances when given the news. None of them happy with the work split. Collins has come to the end of his remarks.

"Any Questions?"

Lisbon definitely has something to say and raises her hand. Collins nods her way.

"Yes Agent Lisbon."

"Is this the only place that's being invaded today, or is another team checking out the other places?."

"This is the only place. Our intel as narrowed it down to just this place. Is that all?"

"I would like to join the party that invades the house."

Collins stares at her and she sees something in his eyes which sends a shiver down her spine but then almost immediately his face is transformed into that smile.

"Of course Agent Lisbon. Agent Foster, you join the search of the outbuildings and Agent Lisbon you take Foster's place on the team."

"Thank you."

Lisbon looks at her team and they give a slight nod of their heads in approval. Collins claps his hands.

"Let's get this show on the road."

They're soon on the road, heading north and hopefully to Jane.

Jane's alone once more. Sweat glistens his brow as he struggles with the pain in his shoulders. Thankfully it was only a taster the Rollins character said and they've given him a little time to think over his decision and hopefully when they return he'll be ready to tell them the truth. Now he has to figure out what truth it is they want to hear. They clearly weren't happy with the answer he gave them, the burns on his shoulders attest to that. This has become quite a puzzle, he hadn't expected to be the object of the interrogation, they hadn't asked Jack a thing, he'd just stood silently by, next to Rollins watching, the proceedings. He closes his eyes and relaxes his body, and starts to work through the information that he's gleaned. He knows he's telling the truth, but they don't believe him. Why don't they believe him and what answer will they believe? Why has their focus changed? They weren't interested in him when they held him captive the first time, it was Jack they took away. What's changed? Jack hasn't been honest with him, he's known that from the moment he met him, perhaps he shouldn't have been so curious to find out the truth.

The Rollins character's a straight forward thug and is at his happiest causing others pain, that was plain from the glint in his eye as he watched Jane suffer. He's relishing his job. He's the boss thug man but he's not the top man, there's someone else behind all this. Jack's reaction to his torture was far more interesting, in that he visibly showed no reaction. Before Jane was too occupied with the pain he's certain he saw a little apprehension in the man's eyes, and which then an addition of relief when Rollins asked Jane what had brought him to Lassen Valley, it would seem that Jack was expecting a different question. Suddenly part of the puzzle falls in to place and Jane has a question of his own to ask. With that knowledge he shuts down as best he can to gain strength for the next round of questioning.

It's an hour from darkness as the invasion team arrive close to their destination. Collins goes through the plan once more and has everyone recite back to him their various roles. Lisbon, Cho, Rigsby and Van Pelt feel a combination of relief and dread. They're close to finding Jane, but they know that he's in as much danger from his rescuers as from the people holding him captive. Lisbon knows that whatever the story Jane's innocent, he's either been set up or someone has employed his services.

Jane wakes up at the sound of footsteps and is soon the same faces are before him. He smiles at the group.

"Good to see you all again, I've been waiting for you."

"You're a cool one Mr. Jane."

"Could I ask a question before you get started."

The leader looks around at the others.

"Sure why not, since you'll be lucky if you can put a sentence together once we're finished."

"Charming."

"Go ahead."

"It's for Jack actually"

Jane's eyes stay on the leader as he asks.

"What would you say Jack if I told you that your wife's still alive?"

"I would say you're nuts, I saw her lying on my kitchen floor."

Jane's gaze is still concentrated on the leader.

"But you said she was mutilated, so can you be certain?"

Jack shrugs.

"She was wearing the same clothes she put on that morning, her hair was the same.."

"All things that can be manipulated to make you believe it was your wife. This guy here knows the truth. Look at him, it's written all over his face."

A voice comes from behind him.

"You always were too clever Patrick."

Jane smiles, Jack's face pales.

"Mae?"

"Ah the wife, and you seem to know me. You're voice does sound familiar, from the carnival if I'm not mistaken."

Jane's heart stills as he hears the same clanging sound as before. He then feels intense heat above his shoulder, it moves towards his right cheek, it hovers just above his skin. He jerks his face to the side away from the heat. He hears a soft laugh just behind his left ear.

"The heat too much for you Patrick, If you don't want me to burn a hole in your shoulder I suggest you keep your head still. I won't touch it I promise. No woman wants to spoil perfection."

Jane slowly moves his head back and the poker hovers by his cheek once more. He strains to keep as still as possible.

"Mae, what's going on?"

Mae walks slowly to the side of Jane keeping the poker in place.

"Thank you Jack for bringing me Patrick, and don't worry your usefulness isn't at an end."

She nods to the 'leader'

"Sean help my husband to one of the chairs."

With a nod from the leader the two t-shirt men grab Jack by the arms and force him on to a chair and secure him in place.

"I just don't want you getting in the way, until I need you."

"Mae tell me what's going on. I thought you were dead. Who was it I buried?"

"All in good time Jack. Figured out who I am yet Patrick?"

"It's hard to concentrate with that thing near my face."

"I'm sure you can manage."

She moves slowly until she's standing in front of him.

"There, is this better?"

Time is lessening the heat on the poker and it's now at a manageable level. Jane looks at the woman. She's small, no more than five foot three. Slightly on the plump side, her hair is long and grey, but dark streaks of her original colour still remain. Her face is one of a kind and gentle woman but underneath Jane can see that it's been honed by years of pretence. Underneath is a soul that's hard and unforgiving. He knows exactly who she is.

"It's helpful that you haven't changed your name Aunt Mae. It's been a long time."

"Not long enough Patrick."

"You're the one who engineered this meeting."

"I certainly did, didn't I? And you had no idea until it was too late. How did you figure me out?"

"You always were heavy handed with the perfume. I remember that about you. I always knew when my dad came from your trailer, your scent followed him, much like Sean here, the same smell I detected when I was in Jack's home. After what 30 years? It's engrained in the woodwork. You've changed scents, a bit more up market now so I didn't know it was you, but I knew it was Jack's wife."

Mae gives him a tight smile.

"As I said you were always too clever."

Mae hands the poker to one of the t-shirt guys.

"Get some more heat on this will you?"

Jane relaxes with it away from his cheek, even if it's short-lived. Mae steps closer and strokes the burn.

"You always were a good-looking boy. There's a red mark but it won't leave anything permanent"

Her touch stings and Jane moves his head away.

"Why am I here?"

"You know why you're here."

"You're son's death had nothing to do with me or my father."

She strikes Jane on his tender cheek, the sting causes him to cry out.

"He was in your care."

"I was ten."

Jack interjects.

"You had a son?"

Mae turns to Jack.

"Yes I had a son. He was five years old when he was allowed to wander off. He was hit and killed when a waltzers car fell on top of him. Patrick here was in charge of looking after him."

"My dad took my attention and Josh wandered away just a little, I shouted at him to get out of the way and tried to get to him, but I was too late."

"Too busy talking about your show to look after your cousin,, but then you seemed to have made a habit of it, causing the death of family members."

Jane closes his eyes against the accusation.

"This was all a long time ago, why now?"

"Because I need to disappear, and I need to tie up loose ends.."

She takes a glance at Jack.

"And you'll make the perfect scape goat Patrick."


	7. Chapter 7

"A scape goat for what?"

"For him."

She nods towards Jack.

"You're going to kill your husband?"

"No Patrick, you are."

Jack interrupts angrily

"Mae what's going on here? Tell me now!"

Mae turns towards her husband.

"It's quite simple Jack, I work for forces against this country. I've been feeding them stuff from you for years. Once you retired there was no reason to go on with the charade of our marriage. So I needed to disappear and they had me 'killed'.

"So why are we here. Why haven't you just disappeared."

Mae turns back to Jane.

"Because I couldn't leave without him paying for what he did to my son."

She's speaking to Jane now.

"I saw you on tv just before I was to leave. I haven't seen you in years, I thought I'd put it behind me, but then I saw you. Working for the CBI now. I looked you up. I missed all the stuff about Red John and your family, that's what comes from living up in the middle of nowhere..and here we are."

"Why does Jack have to die?"

"Let's call him collateral damage."

"Let's call him a human being."

The smile that appears on Mae's face can only be described as bone chilling. She nods to something behind Jane and one of the t-shirt brigade moves behind him and he hears the familiar clang and he can't stop the shiver that runs through him.

"For the next part of the plan I need you unconscious for a little while.."

She takes the white-hot poker off the t-shirt man.

"...let's see what I can do about it."

The first thing he notices as consciousness beckons is the pain. Oblivion came pretty quickly as Aunt Mae began work on him, he wonders if he disappointed her or if it was by design. Every thing is fuzzy, he's aware he's not strapped to the chair and attempts getting up from the floor. His first attempt causes dizziness and he rests for a few moments. Suddenly footsteps are thundering down the stairs, it registers that they're unfamiliar to him just before the door bursts open behind him. He's pushed back to the floor, hitting his head, his hands are pulled back and the handcuffs barely register, his suspicion that he's actually still unconscious and it's all a dream are verified when he's certain he hears Lisbon's voice before he loses his fight and blackness descends once more.

Lisbon rushes to Jane's side, saying his name trying to rouse him.

"Jane, Jane, Jane."

He's hauled to his feet, Lisbon rounds on Collins.

"He's unconscious he needs a doctor."

"What he needs is a lawyer."

Collins moves towards her and bends down picking something up off the floor.

"My bet is that this gun by his side is the same gun that killed Jack Bowen over there."

For the first time Lisbon sees the body of a man tied to a chair, a bullet through the head.

"That's an execution, Jane wouldn't do that."

"Have you seen anyone else around here who could have done it?"

He nods to the men holding Jane who's still slumped.

"Get him out of here."

"No!"

"Agent Lisbon, you're here as a courtesy, you have no standing here."

"I'm going with him."

Collins blocks her way.

"No you're not Agent, you're under my command and you will stay here and process the scene."

He softens his tone and gives her that smile.

"Perhaps you'll find something that will exonerate your partner. Remember you joined the task force to get the truth. Chances were always good that you weren't going to like it."

While Collins's talking Jane disappears up the stairs out of her sight.

Jane's starts to come to his senses once more, he feels hands on his arms forcing him up the stairs, he stumbles his way up, the hands keeping him upright. He's unable to resist the forces propelling him through the house. As his mind becomes clearer he realises he's in handcuffs, men in vests with lettering on them flitter past his vision, his befuddled mind struggles to make sense of it all. He feels the coolness of the night air as he's forced outside and then headlights blind him, He's pushed into a car and cries out in pain. His escorts follow him in, trapping him in the middle, then the car speeds off. He leans back and closes his eyes the muddled images pass before him, he concentrates on stilling each image to make sense of what's happening. Lot's of people...vests...no...bulletproof vests...guns...lettering...CIA...Lisbon! Has he been rescued? It doesn't feel like a rescue..."You're going to kill my husband"...I've been arrested!

Cho looks up as figures come out of the house, he feels relief when he sees it's Jane. He moves towards him but he's pushed in to a car and it speeds off, spewing up gravel in its wake.

Rigsby and Van Pelt are in the barn kneeling down looking at the broken stall and discarded handcuffs. There's a shout that a bullet's been found. It's in a beam in the next stall. They go over to take a look, when the agent digs it out of the wood, there's traces of blood on it.

"Looks like it's hit someone."

The agent puts the bullet into an evidence bag.

"Hey guys"

Rigsby and Van Pelt spin round at Cho's voice.

"I've just seen Jane, he was put in to a car and driven off."

"Was he all right?"

"He didn't look to good, and he was in handcuffs."

"He's been arrested?"

"Looks like it."

"Why?"

Cho shrugs.

"Let's go and find out."

Consciousness takes its reluctant hold on Jane. He's confused at first as he's back tied to a chair but he has images of rescue and being in a car. Then it registers that his restraints have changed to handcuffs. He can feel them on his wrists, his arms are pulled back and attached to the chair. Handcuffs are also around his ankles securing his legs. He shifts position and pain rewards him for his efforts. He's fully clothed and the rub of the material on his burns is agonising. He blinks trying to clear his fuzzy head, his thoughts seem encased in treacle. He's forcing his thoughts back to waking up lying on the floor but the effort causes his head to hurt. Was he dressed then? He tries closing his eyes, taking deep breaths and letting the images and impressions come unbidden.

Footsteps, handcuffs, Lisbon, and car. It doesn't make sense to him, did he imagine Lisbon's voice? Was she there? If so, where is he and where is she now? He shakes his head in frustration, nothing is clear, and he has nothing after getting in to the car. He suspects he's been drugged. He gives up trying to remember and decides to concentrate on where he is now. He slowly opens his eyes, the room is dark, he can make out old stone walls, which explains the musty smell. The wall is only a couple of feet from him but most of it's obscured by the man sitting directly opposite him. He looks down and the toe of his shoe is just inches away from Jane's. The man is staring at him and gives him a smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes. There's something familiar about him but Jane's knows he's in no condition to work out why or who, he puts it to the back of his mind for now. Before Jane computes what's happening the man hits him across the face. All sorts of pain assaults his body.

"Hello Mr. Jane it's a pleasure to meet you."

Jane pulls himself together, he tastes blood in his mouth and can feel that his bottom lip has split open, he stares at the man and returns the smile.

"Not the most civilised of greetings, I usually go with a handshake."

The man hits him again. Anger surges through Jane in response to the pain, he's tired of being restrained and tired of being abused.

"Just leave me alone."

"The man smiles at him again.

"If that's your wish."

He places his hand on Jane's shoulder, using him as leverage to stand up, Jane screams as agony rips through him.

Agent Collins gives instructions to his men and leaves, following after the speeding car. Cho, Rigsby and VanPelt see him pull away as they emerge from the barn. They see Lisbon come out of the house and make their way towards her.

"What's going on boss? Has Jane been arrested?"

"Have you seen Collins?"

"He just left, following after Jane."

"You saw Jane?"

Cho answers:

"Yes they shoved him to a car and high tailed it out of here. He didn't look very good, what happened in there?"

The place is empty, I followed Collins down in to the basement as per our assignment and Jane was there, they had him on the floor and in handcuffs by the time I made it down the stairs. He was unconscious and unresponsive, but they pulled him to his feet and had him out of the basement while I was arguing with Collins to get Jane medical attention."

"His eyes were open when they led him out of the house but he didn't seem to understand what was happening."

"The worse part is that there was a gun near Jane and we found Jack Bowen tied to a chair with a bullet in his head. Collins thinks Jane did it."

VanPelt voices the feelings of the group.

"That's ridiculous Jane wouldn't do something like that."

"Hopefully the evidence can prove Collins wrong, so lets see what we can find."

The agents nod their heads and stare off in the direction of their disappearing friend. Rigsby relates what they found in the barn.

"There's evidence that two people were held in the barn, it looks like one of them was shot. A bullet was found embedded in a post with blood on it. It looked no more than a day old. There were two sets of handcuffs in the barn at different locations."

"It sounds like that's were they kept Jane and Bowen, show me."

They enter the barn to find an agent bagging the handcuffs in the nearest stall. Lisbon walks over to her.

"Can I have a look at those?"

The agent shrugs and places them in to Lisbon's extended hand. She turns the bag over then brings it closer to her face and peers closely at it.

"There's blood on these as well."

The agent takes back the handcuffs and explains her theory.

"It looks like the post was damaged by a bullet, most likely the one we found, and whoever was held captive here pulled themselves free from the post. The effort that would require would have damaged their wrists, causing blood on the handcuffs."

Cho takes a closer look at the post.

"Sounds like a good theory. We need to get the DNA done on those fast, find out if it's Jane."

Lisbon's worried.

"I had a look at Bowen he didn't have any obvious injuries but the bullet through his head. Doesn't it also mean that whoever was here was also shot. You said there was blood on the bullet right?"

Cho looks around at his feet.

"No blood on the floor though so it's probably a flesh wound."

"There wasn't any blood where Jane was laying in the basement either."

They take a look at the far stall where the second set of handcuffs were found and then Lisbon leads them down to the basement.

Jane groans as he wakes up, his body's being juggled about causing him agonies. He's moving...he can't see...he's lying on the floor...there's something on his face..he must be in a vehicle. He groans again as a corner sends him rolling, his hands are still handcuff and he feels shackles on his ankles, there's nothing he can do to help himself, he bangs in to the wall of the vehicle. Given the space he thinks a van rather than the trunk of a car. He's rolled back, and then he's thrown into the wall again. The driver must really be enjoying himself Jane muses, then it takes a deep curve at speed and Jane's head hits the wall hard and sparks and darkness take over once more.


	8. Chapter 8

Even with them closed the brightness is burning in to his eyes, he squeezes them tight and brings a hand up to his eyes to get away from it. It then strikes him, he's not restrained. The shock makes him open his eyes with a start, his reflexes make him close them again and his head pounds. He's feels a bed underneath him and swings his legs around to sit up. Keeping his head down he relaxes his eyes and tests them, they seem all right, he slowly opens them and blinks furiously. Finally his eyes adjust and his head settles in to a manageable ache. He notices that his clothes have changed, he's wearing blue prison garb. He raises his head and bars face him and beyond that a corridor. Everything is white and bright. He attempts to stand up but the room spins, he flops down again and holds his head in his hands waiting for equilibrium, his stomach doing flip-flops. When the second attempt brings the same results he determines he'll have to begin his examination laying down. He swings his legs back on the bed, relaxes himself and allows the muddled images that keep flashing into his mind free rein to go wherever they desire.

Lisbon and the team were shooed away and had to wait for the tech team to finish processing the basement before they're allowed in. They were able to take a look at the body before it was taken away and they had a look around the house. There was nothing of interest, there was no indication that the house has been occupied recently. While they wait in the living room for the all clear the helpful agent from the barn enters.

"You guys still here?"

Lisbon answers:

"We're waiting for tech to finish so we can have a better look at the basement."

"I can have copies of all the evidence and photos sent over to you, if you like?"

"That's very kind of you, Agent….?"

"Agent Baines."

"Thank you Agent Baines, and that would be great, but we need to have a look at the basement so we can put the photos and evidence in context."

Agent Baines nods.

"Of course."

As Agent Baines turns to leave Lisbon stands up.

"Agent Baines, one more thing. Where will they have taken Patrick Jane? They arrested him."

"My guess would be the weigh station."

"The weigh station?"

"It's what we call the place where they hold prisoners awaiting interrogation."

"And where is this 'weigh station'?"

"I'm sorry I'm not allowed to tell you that. You will have to ask Agent Collins."

"I've tried to get a hold of him, he's not answering his phone. Is that where you'll be going?"

Baines shakes her head.

"No, I'm sorry I'll be going back to headquarters."

Agent Baines name's called from out in the hall.

"I have to go, good luck."

"Thank you Agent."

Jane tries his legs again, the room spins for a moment then comes to a stop, his headache is down to a manageable throb. Pain shoots through him as the movement causes his clothing to rub on his burns, irritated he pulls off his top and drops it on the bed, it feels better. Hunger has driven him out of his musings and on to his feet. He wonders how long it's been since he ate in the woods and a cup of tea would go down really nice. His cell isn't very big, it holds his bed which is only just wide enough to hold him. It's suspended on the wall with bolts. In the corner at the end of the bed is the toilet and sink. The toilet hasn't been used much or it's very strong bleach they dump down it as there's no offending smell. The bars to his prison are one stride away from his bed, cosy. The bars are made of shiny metal and he catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror it produces, he does a double take. Looking at his stubble it's been three days since he left the CBI headquarters with Rigsby, which means it's been almost two days without food, though he suspects he's been given liquids while he's been unconscious, as his mouth is moist. He finds this encouraging, they must want him alive. His face is purple down one side. He's felt the pain when he's moved his facial muscles and now he see the physical evidence, it's a nasty one. He examination over he puts his ear to the bars and strains for any sounds of life, there's only silence. He shouts to get attention.

"Anybody there? I need some food and a cup of tea."

Nothing.

After a couple more tries he gives up and moves along the bars to examine the door. It's an automatic lock that's operated from somewhere else. There's nothing he can do about it.

He shouts again and pulls at the bars. He hits them in frustration and lays back down on the bed, covers his eyes with an arm and lets his mind wander once more. The images he has after the torture are fuzzy and making no sense. He needs to get his head together and figure out what's going on.

Lisbon is pacing the room thinking of Jane, wondering where he is, hoping that they can make sense of what's happened here and clear him. An agent appears at the doorway.

"Time to go, we're leaving."

Lisbon turns to him.

"We're not, we want to look in the basement. Have the techs finished?"

"Yes they're packing up and so are we. You can stay if you want but we're taking the vehicles you'll have to find your own way back."

"We're not leaving we'll sort something out."

"Suit yourself but it's miles from anywhere."

"Thanks but we'll be fine."

They follow the agent out and watch as he closes the front door behind him. They head to the stairs eager to finally get a look at the basement.

The team are in a somber mood as the car drives them away from the house. They only thing of interest in the basement was evidence that the stove had been lit very recently. It was still warm to the touch. Everything else had been taken away by forensics. They stood and looked around the room in silence, each wondering what had happened in there. A chill ran through Lisbon, she could almost swear that she felt an evil presence there. She thought of Jane on the floor handcuffed and unconscious. Questions ran through her mind.

'How did he end up unconscious on the floor. Jack Bowen certainly couldn't have caused it, so unless Jane somehow tripped and knocked himself out someone else was here.'

She voices her reasoning. Van Pelt puts forward an idea.

"Maybe the CIA guys knocked him out."

"I was too close to them, they didn't shout any warnings and it's Jane, he's never resisted arrest in his life, point a gun at him and he goes down like an obedient puppy."

"Any of you have anything to take fingerprints with?"

They each shake their heads.

"Great we're going to have to count on the CIA for that information."

Cho speaks up.

"I don't think they're going to share anything with us."

Lisbon takes another look around the room and digs her phone out of her pocket.

"I'm going outside to get a signal and call Bertram and get us a ride back."

Bertram ordered them back to Sacramento and for Lisbon to go to his office immediately. His secretary announces her arrival.

"Good evening Agent Lisbon."

"Good evening Sir."

"This is a terrible state of affairs, I've been on to the head of the Western division of the CIA and he gave me the run around. Told me he had complete faith in Agent Collins and that we can count on his doing a fine job. If our consultant is innocent then Agent Collins will find that out."

Lisbon reads between the lines.

"He doesn't want us butting our nose in to the case. We're suppose to leave Jane at their mercy."

"That's about it. Asked for permission to see him, and was refused, asked to get him a lawyer, and was refused. Told that if Jane wanted a lawyer it was up to him to get one."

"There must be something we can do. I'm not sitting around waiting for them to release him. I'm not confident that they have any intention of clearing Jane. They have a suspect and that's good enough for them."

"Officially I have to tell you that you can't do anything Agent Lisbon."

"And unofficially..."

"Unofficially I can't tell you anything but I can't tell you what you can do on your spare time either and I'm afraid I have to tell you that due to the suspected behaviour of the consultant in your care, I have to suspend you for three days, during that time maybe you can think about how you could have done things differently."

"Thank you sir."

"Oh and your team will be stepping down until your return."

"I'll let them know."

"Good luck Agent Lisbon."

"Thank you Sir."

"He suspended you?"

Lisbon and the team are in her office as she collects some personal items and her laptop. They crowded in after seeing their boss being marched in with security by her side.

"Yes, I guess he had no choice with Jane being arrested for murder. Wants me to think about the choices I made."

"But what about Jane?"

She looks at Cho, his arms are folded across his chest, a sure sign he's not happy with the situation.

"He's in the hands of the CIA, they'll get to the bottom of it. You guys are on stand down until I return, it's only for three days."

"It's not right boss."

Lisbon turns to Van Pelt.

"It's the way of the world."

She's finished collecting her things and gives her team a cheery smile.

"Look since we now have the time why don't you all come over to my place in the morning for some of my world famous pancakes."

"Sure boss."

"Good. Shall we say early - seven-thirty?"

Cho is quick on the uptake

"Seven would be better for me."

Lisbon nods.

"Okay seven."

With that Lisbon's escorted out of the building.

Jane hears sounds in the distance. It's the first he's heard since waking up. He recognises it as electronic doors opening. He's counted two so far. He hears two more before there are footsteps in his hallway, Where ever he is he's buried deep. The footsteps stop and the door to his cell opens. He knows that three men came down the hallway. He refuses to opens his eyes for them but can heae two enter his cell and walk quickly to his side. He's grabbed by the arms and hauled to his feet, a bag is thrust over his head.

"Hey"

He receives a punch in the stomach that sends a sharp pain that would have doubled him over but for the strong hands holding him. It pushes the air out of his lungs making him gasp for breath as he's dragged out of his cell. He counts four doors and three turns before he's shoved in to a chair and handcuffed to it, his arms behind him. His feet are shackled and then his head's pulled back and he's aware of a face close to his.

"Mr. Jane no need to worry this is just a little something to keep you pliant and disoriented as I know you're a very clever man and I can't have you pulling any of your tricks. As Jane feels the hood over his head being lifted a little to reveal a part of his neck, he decides to test a theory.

"And who do I have the pleasure of talking to? Is it Agent Collins or Agent Rollins, or is Michael Rollins called Collins, you two are obviously related."

Jane feels pain on his neck as he's stabbed ruthlessly with a needle. As the liquid enters his system it burns.

"Yes far too clever Mr. Jane."

Jane's last cohesive thought is that at least it's a step.


	9. Chapter 9

Everyone's at Lisbon's promptly at seven. She's made them pancakes as promised. She didn't sleep well, her dreams were disturbed by images of Jane, courtrooms and deaths sentences. She finally gave up at 5am. She showered, dressed and while drinking coffee read over all the information that they have so far, making notes of what needs doing. They each eat quickly eager to get down to business each of them worried about their colleague.

They compare notes about what they know and it's very little. They know that Jack Bowen worked for the CIA, that his wife was brutally murdered a few months ago and that she had connections with the carny circuit. Not a lot to go on. Assignments are handed out. Van Pelt is to dig deeper to see if there is a connection between Jack's wife and Jane. Rigsby is to research Agent Collins, see how trustworthy he is. Cho is to research the house that they raided for any connections with the principle players. Lisbon doesn't have any contacts in the CIA but she has a friend in the FBI who does, she's to contact him to ask him to find out what he can about Jane's whereabouts. That done she reads through everything again, they will compare notes at lunch time.

Their plans are thrown in to disarray when Lisbon receives an unexpected phone call. Agent Baines needs to meet with them as soon as possible. Gold River, which is about thirteen miles outside Sacramento, is the place she chooses for the meeting. She doesn't go into details but she sounds nervous. They pile into Cho's car and with traffic light on the highway they make it in twenty minutes. It's a small town with a population of only around eight thousand residents, they quickly find the cafe where they are to meet Agent Baines. Cho has to park a few spaces down. They emerge from the vehicle and make their way back towards the cafe. Inside it's red checkered table cloths with booths along the wall and stools against the long counter They quickly scan the place it isn't very busy and it's easy to spot Agent Baines sitting in the far corner booth. Cho and Rigsby take the seat opposite the agent, Van Pelt sits next to her while Lisbon pulls up a chair from a free-standing table and settles on the end.

A waitress comes over with with a small notepad and pencil in her hand. She's middle-aged, her hair cut into bob and coloured a medium brown. She's a little overweight but her height of around five foot nine carries it well. She gives them a cheery smile as she greets them and asks for their order. After five orders of coffee taken they're left alone and they each look expectantly at Agent Baines. She doesn't speak straight away and doesn't maintain eye contact for more than a split second. Lisbon tries to encourage her.

"Agent Baines we appreciate you calling us, do you have something on Patrick Jane?"

She leans in and whispers as if she's afraid their conversation is being overheard.

"He's not there."

"Not where?"

"At the weigh station."

Cho asks for clarifiction.

"That's the place for suspects awaiting interrogation that you couldn't tell us the whereabouts?"

"Yes, one of the cars took all the forensic evidence to our labs and I was in the car that went to the weigh station where we are to write-up our reports so that the're available to the interrogating officers."

Agent Baines stops her narrative as the waitress returns with their coffee.

"Just holler when you want refills, they're on the house."

They nod their appreciation, when she leaves, Agent Baines continues.

"I finished my report and thought I would check on your Patrick Jane thinking that I could let you know how he's doing. I know you were worried about him and I wanted to reassure you of his condition. But when I checked the prisoner list, he wasn't on it. I talked to the warden and they'd had no new prisoners for three days and he'd not been given any notification to expect anyone."

Lisbon has alarm bells ringing loudly in her head and a heavy lump in the pit of her stomach.

"So where is he?"

Agent Baines shakes her head.

"I don't know. I checked on the system and I couldn't find him anywhere."

.

The man and the woman are clothed against the cold unlike their prisoner who's only in his underwear, the evidence of his earlier mistreatment clear to see. The burns look infected and the accompanying fever is not helping the condition of the man. His chains rattle as he shivers violently, his teeth actually chattering. The woman has a cruel smile on her face as she looks into his eyes. The confidence and intelligence she saw within, despite the torture he was undergoing, has gone. The drugs are messing with his mind and his eyes testify of the waking nightmares they are inducing. He's unaware they are standing in front of him all he can see are the things in his head. He's shaking his head trying to rid himself of his visions. She walks slowly around him. She notes cuts in his wrists and ankles where he's fought against his restraints in an effort to get away from whatever he is seeing. Despite the cold his body's covered with beads of sweat from his fever and exertions, his hair's damp darkening his usual blond, his curls plastered against his forehead. She reaches out and slowly traces her finger up his spine, he shows no evidence that he feels her touch. She looks towards her companion and smiles.

"You're doing a great job. How much longer do we need to keep him like this?"

"Just a few more hours should do it."

"Call me in three."

Lisbon ignores Bertram's secretary and barges in to his office. He looks up surprised and so do the other six people in the room. He looks sternly at her.

"Agent Lisbon, what do you mean by barging into my office like this. Do you want me to make that suspension permanant?"

"The CIA don't have Jane, at least not anywhere he's suppose to be."

"What do you mean they don't have Jane, of course they do."

"They don't sir."

Bertram looks to the other people in the room apologetically.

"I'm sorry about this. I think we were almost done, make sure that everything's shipshape ready for the Senator's visit. You can go."

They stand up and each looks at Lisbon as they make their way out of Bertram's office.

"Now what's this about Agent?"

"I had a call from an Agent with the CIA who was on the bust with us. She set up a meeting. She says that Jane isn't in the hands of the CIA. He's not at the weigh station where they send the prisoners and she hasn't found a record of him anywhere. She also hasn't been able to find Agent Collins."

"I'm sure that they must have him somewhere she doesn't know about."

"I have a friend sir, who has a friend, quite high up in the CIA and I reached out to him. He reported back ten minutes ago. Jane's not in their system/ they have no record of him. I don't know what's going on sir but I don't like it."

Bertram reaches for the telephone.

"Neither do I Agent, let me make some phone calls."

Lisbon nods her head and wipes imaginary hair from her face.

"Sit down Agent before you fall down."

Lisbon falls heavily into the chair, her heart is beating rapidly. She tells herself to calm down, Jane will be all right, he has to be.

The team are fulfilling the assignments they were given at breakfast but with greater urgency. The meeting with Agent Baines and the results of Lisbon's phone call to her FBI friend have them all shell shocked. They push back the fear that they may never find Jane.

"Eureka!"

Rigsby and Cho look up from their laptops at Van Pelts exclamation.

"We need to call Lisbon now, I've found a connection between Jane and Jack Bowen's wife."

She reads the text on the screen then looks at the two men.

"It's not good."

Lisbon steps outside of Bertram's office to take VanPelt's call. After hanging up she goes back in to find that Bertram dialing another number. She's listened to two conversations so far and Bertram's being given the run-a-round. She can tell his patience is wearing thin. He looks up when she enters.

"That was VanPelt sir there's a connection between Jane and Jack Bowen's dead wife from his past. I need to go talk to his carnie friends."

"I'll keep trying here, I will find out where he is, they're not getting away with this, they can't just abscond with my consultant."

"Thank you sir."

"Off you go and let me know what you find out."

"Yes sir."

Cho parks the car and he and Lisbon climb out of the vehicle. There's a lot of activity as preparations are made for setting up the carnival that opens at the weekend. Lisbon realises that she doesn't know which one of the trailers belongs to Pete and Sam, it's been a while since she came with Jane and it was at a different location. She feels relief as she looks around and spies Pete emerging from a trailer about two hundred yards away. She turns to Cho and points in Pete's direction.

"That's Pete over there. come on, hopefully he'll be straight with us."

Pete is moving in the opposite direction so they have to hurry to catch him up. When they get close enough Lisbon shouts his name.

"Pete, Pete, Pete.."

Lisbon wonders whether he can't hear her or is choosing to ignore her.

"Pete, Jane's in trouble, serious trouble."

Pete stops and turns around. He stares at them and then breaks into a smile and walks back towards them.

"Patrick's pretty police friend."

"Agent Lisbon, and this is my colleague Agent Cho."

Pete and Cho exchange nods.

"So what as Patrick got himself mixed up in now and how can I possibly help?"

"He's missing and we believe he's in great danger. A name has come up during our efforts to find him, Mae Shelburn."

Pete's smile disappears from his face, he starts to walk back towards his trailer.

"Come with me. If Mae has Patrick he's probably already dead."

"Mae's dead, but her name connected somehow. Can you help us?"

"Welcome back to the living Patrick."

To Jane the words sound like they're coming from the end of a dark tunnel, and yet they still send pain vibrating through his skull. He tries to open his eyes but they feel heavy and don't respond to his commands. He's shivering, he tries to stop, he tries to bring his arms in towards his chest to hug himself but his mind seems to have lost the ability to obey his commands. Words break in to his conciousness once more, the voice is soft.

"Patrick, breathe in deeply. Give it a try, it's something you can do. Inhale slow and deep. Try it after three. One...two...three.."

Jane concentrates hard, ignoring every other piece of information that his mind is telling him and fills his lungs with air. He aware of how cold it is as it passes through his nose follicles, which explains to him his shivering. He feels his chest rise.

"That's good now let it out nice and slow. Concentrate hard to do it as slowly as you can."

Jane tries to control the release but the air is gone.

"That's okay, just try again. Breathe in deeply and then slowly release."

Jane's pleased when he does better this time.

"Good. Just concentrate on your breathing and in a few minutes you'll be able to open your eyes."

Jane's trying to concentrate but frightening images keep invading his mind causing his breathing to quicken as panic send adrenalin flooding into his system. He's trying to fight them but they keep coming and coming until they're all he's aware of and reality slips away once more.

The woman smiles as she watches him lose control.

"Yes I think he's ready."

The men, stood behind her, move towards Jane and release him from his restraints and drag him back to his cell.


	10. Chapter 10

Mae Shelburn is his Aunt. She's from his father's side. His Dad could be mean, especially when drunk but Mae was in a league of her own. She was great company, full of charm and wit and then she would hurt you, just because she could and if she had reason to then you were in real trouble. She had a man's legs broken just because he bumped in to her and didn't apologise.

"We read a news report that she had a son who died, was crushed under a falling waltzer car."

"Yes, a lovely boy. He was the exact opposite of his Mother. He was loving and always wanting to please folk. But his energy and curious nature made him a handful, you couldn't take your eyes off him for a moment, without him getting into something. He worshipped Patrick, who was about four or five when he was born, he would follow him everywhere. He looked a lot like him too, except Patrick has his Mother's smile."

Lisbon's resisting the urge to hurry him up, she knows it's best to let Pete go at his own pace.

"Anyway this day Mae had business in town and left her son in Patrick's care. They were helping set up one of the stalls when Alex, Patrick's dad, went over to chew him out about something. I can't remember what, he was always chewing him out about something. But he was really mad, he grabbed Patrick by the collar and pulled him up close and was yelling in his face. Little Josh tried to intervene but Alex hit him and the boy ran. We all looked up when we heard the warning shout but there was nothing we could do, it happened so fast. We lifted the car off him but it was too late, he died instantly.

"She blames Jane for what happened?"

"Yes, he was the one who was looking after him."

"But he was what? Nine, ten?"

"We sent him away for a couple of months, he was gone before Mae returned. I remember Patrick was distraught. He didn't want to go but there was no way he could be here when she returned. She left the carnival not long after she buried her son and we haven't seen or heard anything of her since. You say she's dead?"

"Yes brutally murdered a few months ago. Her husband and Jane were abducted, apparently her husband use to work for the CIA. When we went to the place where they were being held we found Jack Bowen, he husband, shot dead, Jane was alive but Agent Collins of the CIA took him away and we can't find him."

Lisbon noticed Pete's ear prick at the name Agent Collins.

"This Agent Collins, what does he look like?"

"He's about six two, pleasant-looking, his eyes are blue, he has a dimple on his right cheek and a smile that seems warm but has a creepiness about it. Why"

"Mae used to have a couple of teenagers , maybe early twenties, hang around her place, they weren't part of the carnival, it's suspected they're the ones that broke the guy's legs and did the rest of her dirty work. They're names were Rollins, the one you describe was intelligent but cruel, everyone was frightened of him. We never saw them again after Mae left and good riddance. Are you sure Mae's dead?"

In some corner of his mind Jane can hear the electric doors opening and closing but there's no way that he's able to put the information together. It's just a noise that joins in with all the other messages his mind's unable to sort through. His two torturers stand outside his prison cell looking at their victim with satisfaction. Jane's huddle on the floor, curled in to a ball, sweat glistening on his body. The door slides open and they walk inside. Agent Collins uses his foot to move Jane on to his back. Jane's eyes are open but he shows no recognition. Mae kneels down at his side. She touches his forehead and grimaces at the sweat that comes off on to her hands and then smiles up at Collins.

"He's burning up."

She holds out her hands and Collins opens a small container he's carrying. Taking out a syringe he hands it to her. She pushes Jane's head to the side and jabs the syringe in to the his neck. She plunges the drug contained within in to his blood stream.

"In ten minutes Patrick you'll become more aware of your surroundings and then you'll really begin to suffer."

Collins drags him to the edge of the cell, Mae helps to sit him up and then Jane's hands are pulled behind him and handcuffed to the bars.

Lisbon opens her phone and calls Van Pelt after thanking Pete and heading back to the car.

"Van Pelt I want you to check the veracity of the identification of Mae Sheldon's body. I want to know if there's anyway that it's possible it wasn't her. Let me talk to Rigsby... Hi Rigsby what have you found out about Agent Collins? Try searching with the surname Rollins, there were brothers.

She hangs up the phone and turns to Cho. Collins joined the CIA about ten years ago, he was recruited by Jack Bowen, brought in to help with a specific case and did so well, they offered him a position."

"If he really is one of these Rollins boys, how did he get through the background checks."

"I guess even the CIA isn't fallible."

They're interrupted as Lisbon's phone rings, she answers it as she's climbing in to the car. Cho here's her say:

"We're on our way."

He looks over to her and her eyes are shining with excitement.

"Good news boss.?"

"That was Agent Baines she thinks she's found where they could be holding Jane. We're meeting her at headquarters.

 

Lisbon and Cho arrive in the bullpen, Agent Baines is there along with Bertram. Lisbon called him on her way back to headquarters and he insisted on hearing what Agent Baines had to say. Lisbon gets straight to the point.

"Agent Baines what have you got? Where is he?"

"I can't say for certain this is where he is, but I did some digging, asked a friend who's worked for the agency longer than I have if he knows where someone could hide someone who they didn't what people to know they had?"

"But we know he has Jane."

"Yes but Agent Collins has him off the grid for some reason."

"He told me there's a facility which was built just last year, state of the art stuff but it hasn't been used because of some interdepartmental argument. It's abandoned and it's not far from where we stormed the house."

"That sound like the place, let's go."

Bertram holds his hand up.

"Slow down Agent Lisbon, you just can't storm a federal security building willy nilly."

"Sir, Jane's in grave danger, someone from his past may be holding him, someone with a serious grudge against him."

"What's this all about?"

Lisbon quickly summarises what she learnt from Pete. Bertram's skeptical.

"You got all this from one of his carni friends. They're not exactly known for being truthful."

Lisbon looks towards Van Pelt.

"Grace run the Rollin's boys see what pops up, a photograph would be helpful. "

All eyes are on Van Pelt as her fingers dance around the keyboard. They see a glint appear in her eyes and she swivels round her screen.

"Will this do it boss?"

A photograph fills the screen of two young men and a women. The one on the left is a few years younger than when they met him but there's no mistaking it's Agent Collin's. Bertram stares at it for a few moments and looks up at Van Pelt.

"Follow me in to Lisbon's office, lets see what I can do."

Van Pelt looks surprised but she follows Bertram and Lisbon. Bertram points to Lisbon's chair, sit there Agent and get that picture up and ready to email. Bertram picks up the phone and starts dialling.

Finally they've gone, Jane's alone, he's managed to find the will, the energy and the focus to use the facilities but now he's lying in a heap on the floor. He's exhausted but fighting sleep.

He feels hot but is shivering, his instinct is to wrap his arms around himself to try to hold his body still but they don't obey his command, they feel heavy. He hears a voice, it seems distant but something tells him it's not. A pain shoots through him and pierces the fog. The voice is much clearer and it's close.

"Open your eyes Patrick."

He tries to obey but it's hard, it feels like his lashes are stuck together, refusing to budge. Another piercing pain cuts through the glue and his eyes are open, but the brightness closes them again. He's feeling more aware of his surroundings and now understands that his arms are secured behind him and he's sitting on the floor.

"Open your eyes Patrick."

The next pain, he perceives, comes from a boot in his chest. He groans and opens his eyes. He squints against the blinding light, but manages to keep them open. Two figures are before him, one standing over him, a man, the other crouched beside him, he looks into her face and begins to remember.

"Welcome back Patrick."

The words are accompanied with a satisfied smile.

"Aun.."

He's unable to carry on as the air hits his dry throat and sends him into a coughing fit, which causes his chest to spasm with pain. He hears her speak to her companion.

"It seems you may have broken a rib." Then her attention is back on him.

"Would you like some water Patrick?"

For the first time he sees the bottle she's holding in her hand. He nods his head. He watches as she slowly opens the bottle, he can feel the moisture touching his lips, the coolness of it passing over his tongue and down his throat soothing the dryness. As she brings it towards him he parts his lips, but the bottle disappears and he feels water cascading down his face, accompanied by laughter, he desperately tries to catch what water he can on his tongue.

"Opps that was clumsy of me, and it's all gone."

She waves the bottle in front of his face. Although his thirst hasn't been quenched the water has cleared his mind and he knows where he is and everything that's happened. He looks her calmly in the eye and she smiles and repeats her greeting of before:

"Welcome back Patrick"

A bottle's placed in her hand and she twists the cap. Jane can't resist watching, desperate to feel the liquid in his mouth. She laughs at his longing but holds the bottle against his lips. The water tastes as good as he imagined and he savours every sensation of it quenching his thirst. After a couple of swallows she pulls it away.

"That's enough, we can't have you getting comfortable."

"What do you want?"

"A confession."

He's surprised.

"A confession to what?"

"To the murder of Jack Bowen."

"Why?"

She shrugs.

"You didn't pay for the murder of my son so you can pay for Jack's"

"You're insane."

He doesn't see the boot before it lands on his chest, the pain sends his head swimming and he pants to control it. Mae grabs his hair pulling his head back.

"If I'm insane it's because you made me. The death of a son can do that to a women."

"As if you loved him. ohhhhhh"

A foot has landed in his stomach. A cruel smile plays on her face.

"You're probably right, but you loved your wife and daughter. It's horrible what happened to them. Have you missed them Patrick? Wasn't it good seeing them again? It didn't look like you were enjoying it?"

Gruesome images that he's tried to push to the back of his mind jump into view.

"What did you do?"

He's proud that his voice comes out steady. She laughs.

"Just a cocktail of hallucinogenic drugs combined with something to lower your resistance to hypnotic suggestion. to dictate your hallucinations. It was fun...for me anyway. I just wanted to give you a taste."

He has no desire to give her any satisfaction and keeps his gaze steady although he feels dread at what he fears is coming.

She traces her finger along his jaw line.

"Look at you trying to be brave. What if I tell you that every time you close your eyes to sleep, you will see the same thing. I've programmed it in to you Patrick. Every time you close your eyes you will live it over and over again, the death of your wife and daughter, but each time it will seem more real, soon you'll be smelling the blood when you're awake, tasting it on your tongue. I could do that to you now, just a word from me and you'll never enjoy a drink of water or tea again.

He battles hard to keep from showing any reaction. She looks at him, false pity in her eyes.

"I can see you're not ready for that confession yet. Maybe a reminder of what blood tastes like. She looks at the man as she straightens up.

"I don't want him unconscious, just bleeding.


	11. Chapter 11

It took a few slow anxious hours but Bertram secured permission for Lisbon and her team to enter the facility. They met up with some FBI agents and they're almost there. Lisbon and her team are lost in their own thoughts. Lisbon's said her prayers, pleading to find Jane alive and well, that they're not too late. There's a feeling of deja vous. The raid's complicated as the facility is huge and they've don't know where he'll be. After studying the plans they have three favourite possibilities, they're split in to four groups, three taking each one of the targets and the other starting the search of the rest of the facility. There is one member of the CBI team leading each group. Lisbon's taking their 'most likely' choice, buried deep inside.

The shout goes up to be ready, they're almost there and they need to be quick, clean and sharp. Cho and Lisbon look to each other and nod, determined that if Jane's in there, they're not leaving with out him. Rigsby and Van Pelt are in the other vehicle. Agent Baines is with Lisbon. As soon as the vehicle comes to a halt they pour out of the vehicles, vests on and guns ready. All Lisbon can see is a door, the rest of the building's built in to the mountain. The leader of the FBI unit is using the code he's been given to open the door. They stand watching hoping it's not been changed. Tension's released as they hear machinery moving. The Special Agent turns to make sure everyone is ready. Van Pelt's team's poised to enter first, he opens the door and they rush in. No gun fire is exchanged, Lisbon's team follows then Rigsby's and finally Cho's. They all split off to their assigned routes which they memorized while travelling.

Lisbon's dismayed at the noise they're generating, there's no chance of a surprise attack. The sound the doors make as they open echo's around the building. But then, they haven't met a soul, there's been no sign of life. Lisbon's getting a sick feeling in her stomach that Jane isn't here. But then she hears a scream and it stops everyone in their tracks.

"That's Jane."

Jane's shackled to the bars of his cell once more. Mae and the Rollin boys are towering over him. They all hear the doors opening in the distance. Jane sees the reaction of his captors and knows that there's at least one unexpected guest. A giddiness surges up from his stomach at the thought of what it means and he can't stop the crazy smile on his face. He's rewarded with a kick and he screams as loud as he can, the effort causing him to cough violently as his dry throat complains bitterly. Michael Rollins turns to Mae in panic.

"What are we going to do we're cornered here, those doors are the only way out."

"We have our way out right here."

She's staring down at Jane, who's leaning back against the bars, his eyes closed. The coughing fit is over but it's taken a lot of his strength with it.

"Unfasten him."

Jane feels the handcuffs release and he's hauled to his feet. He cries out in pain at the movement as the handcuffs are fastened around his wrists once more. Mae removes a scarf from around her neck she hands it to Michael Rollins.

"Here I can't stand listening to him any longer."

She grabs Jane's arm and Rollins gags him. She whispers nastily in Jane's ear.

"You better keep moving because when you're no good to me I will kill you."

They each take out their guns and move behind Jane. They push him out of the cell, his has trouble controlling his feet and crashes into the wall head first. He feels firm hands on his arms as his head swims.

"You better stay on your feet."

The hands pull him back from the wall and keep a hold of him as they move him towards the door. Jane's aware of their tension as the door opens, the hallway before them is empty and they move to the next one. This hallway is also empty but as they step through, the door in front of them opens and Jane sees Lisbon.

Lisbon's thrown for a moment as she lays eyes on her battered consultant but quickly regains her professionalism at the sight of the gun against his head and the two pointing at them.

"Agent Collins good to see you again, and this must be your brother and Jane's aunt."

"You better move missy and let us through or Patrick's dead."

"My name is Teresa Lisbon of the CBI and you'll never make it out of here, so put your guns down now."

Jane's stares at Lisbon and then at all the guns behind her and knows he's in big trouble. He hates guns pointed at him and in a narrow corridor with no where to go and him in the middle, doesn't bode well for him. They can probably take out the men without hitting him but he's a good shield for Aunt Mae, being two inches taller than her. and he's in no doubt that within seconds of shooting the men, Aunt Mae will shoot him. He does the only thing he can think of and hopes that surprise is on his side...he gives in to the dizziness, his body goes limp. Taken by surprise by the sudden extra weight, Mae loses her grip on Jane and he hits the floor. Unfortunately human nature dictates everyone to watch him fall giving Mae time to let off a shot, then bullets reverberate in the closed space.

Lisbon's sits at his bedside unwilling, or perhaps, unable to take her eyes off Jane. It's as if she's afraid that if she does he will disappear. Perhaps, not an unfounded fear as the CIA, despite her most vigorous protests, have him hand cuffed to the railing of the bed. They're arguing that he's still has a charge to answer for until proven innocent. She's certain that this is a huge embarrassing mess and they want to use Jane as a scapegoat and she's refusing to leave his side. They're not taking him anywhere.

She's never seen him still for so long. The heavy sedation they have him under leaves him totally motionless. Under the regular post-operative sedation, he'd thrashed around violently, they had to put him in a coma-like state to keep him still and allow the doctor's stitches to do their job.

His list of injuries had gone on and on, gashes, contusions, burns, broken bones, infection and last of all and most dangerous the bullet hole that nicked his right kidney and almost caused him to bleed to death.

The loss of blood has paled his complexion. Underneath the bruise and the flush of his infection, his face is almost as white as the sheets covering his beaten body. She gasped when she saw the bruises as the nurse checked his wound. But at least his back and he's alive.

Which is more than can be said of his captors. Hell broke loose after Mae Bowen shot Jane, Lisbon shot her before she was able to get off another and the Rollin boys had been too slow recovering. They went down like pins. None of the rescue team were hurt. Lisbon and Agent Baines turned Jane on his side as they saw the blood start to fan out from under him and together they were able to stem the flow until help arrived. A medic team waiting outside the facility were there within minutes. She'd gone with him in the ambulance, leaving Cho and Agent Baines to clear up the mess.

The door opens and Cho enters the room, she attempts to give him a smile.

"How's he doing?"

"He seems to be holding his own. We almost lost him Cho."

Cho nods his head, he'd prepared himself for the worst, he knew the bullet was in a bad place. He'd been relieved he was wrong.

"Where's Rigsby and Van Pelt?"

"They're outside, they wouldn't let us all in."

It's Lisbon's turn to nod.

"Hospitals are strange places. It's not like we can tire him out when he's not even aware we're here."

"How long will he be like this."

"They said they can't risk bringing him out for another three days, apparently he was extremely distressed while coming out of the operation. His thrashing pulled out his drip and it took three of them to hold him still so it could be repaired."

Cho moves towards the bed and looks distastefully at the handcuffs. He takes out his handcuff key and holds it out to Lisbon.

"You want to do the honours?"

She looks at him bewildered.

"Bertram caused a stink, I've never seen him so mad. He called everyone and Jane's in our custody now."

Lisbon smiles and jumps up and takes the key. The handcuffs are quickly off and thrown in the trash.

"Bertram's really had our backs on this one, who knew he liked Jane so much."

"I think it's more he doesn't like the CIA. I think they must have crossed him before. 'I wouldn't trust those people as far as I could spit them' was his line to the governor."

Lisbon laughs.

"Whatever the reason, I'm glad he's on our side with this one. I don't think Jane will be happy though when he realises he owes Bertram."

Cho shakes his head and one of his rare smiles appear.

"I want to be here when he finds out."

He takes one last look at Jane.

"I have to go, I have some paperwork to finish up."

"Thanks Cho. I guess I can go home now that we have him….I'll just stay a little bit longer though, the doctor's coming by."

Cho nods and leaves.

Lisbon must have fallen asleep as she's jerked awake with the door opening again. This time it's the doctor. He nods to her and raises his palm.

"Don't get up Agent, you're not in my way."

She watches as the Doctor does his examination and writes things down in Jane's chart. Then he turns to look at her.

"He's doing very well. I would like to see his temperature going down but at least it's not going up, it can take a while for the antibiotics to kick in. We can transfer him into a regular ward when it does. We found a anomaly in his blood work. It seems he was drugged. There's not much left in his system, it was a hallucigenic drug, I won't bore you with the name, and there was possibly something else but there wasn't enough of it left to get a read on it."

"A halluciagenic? Could that explain his violent behaviour?"

"Perhaps, but there wasn't really enough left in his system. It's more likely the result of the trauma he's suffered."

"Thank you doctor."

He looks intently at her.

"You should go home and get some rest, he'll need you more when he's awake. We'll take good care of him."

"I know you will. It's just..."

The doctor nods in understanding. He cocks his head towards the bed.

"Good to see the handcuffs off."

He places his hand on her shoulder before heading towards the door and opening it.

"Good night Agent."

She turns her head towards him and smiles.

"Thank you Doctor, good night."


	12. Chapter 12

Jane's been moved to a regular room, his infection's under control and everything is healing as it should. The doctor came by and told Lisbon that they were weaning him off the sedation and he should begin to wake up in a few hours. After the first day Lisbon realised that there was nothing for her to do at his bedside except watch him sleep so she's split her time between the hospital, work and home. CIA blustered for a couple of days but finally gave up their files. They arrived that morning, heavily redacted. Lisbon was pleased to see that it was Agent Baines they sent along to watch the files. Apparently they feared that CBI might lose them or alter them in some way. When she left Cho, Rigsby and Van Pelt were pouring over the files while Agent Baines was being a tremendous asset in helping them wade through the misdirection.

Lisbon's sat at Jane's bedside talking to Cho when she's startled by a moan.

"I need to go Cho, Jane's waking up."

She hangs up, puts her phone into her pocket and stands up and moves near the top of the bed.

"Jane? It's me Lisbon."

His eyes are closed, his head moves from side to side and he moans once more. Lisbon talks a little more forcefully.

"Jane, you're in the hospital, wake up."

Jane moans again and his face is crumpled in pain. Lisbon hits the call button. She takes Jane's hand trying to connect him to the present and offer him comfort as he's becoming more distressed with each passing second.

"Jane it's Lisbon, you're in the hospital. Are you in pain?"

The door opens and a nurse enters the room. Lisbon looks towards her.

"He's beginning to wake up and he seems to be in a lot of pain."

The nurse studies his chart and then moves to the other side of Jane and tries to rouse him.

"Mr. Jane, Patrick. You're in the hospital, you were shot, you've had surgery and you're going to be all right. Can you wake up for me Patrick.?"

Lisbon and the nurse both step back quickly when Jane suddenly shouts 'No' and flings his arms. He's in obvious distress. The nurse looks at Lisbon.

"Will you be all right while I get some help."

Lisbon nods and the nurse runs out the room.

Lisbon looks at Jane his moans are louder and his movements are more frantic, she can see his eyes moving quickly from side to side beneath his lids. He's obviously having a nightmare and she tries again to wake him but she can't get too close. She puts on her best 'Jane your in trouble' tone, although in truth she's hurting in side for him.

"Jane stop messing about and wake up."

Bodies rush into the room, the nurse and a couple of orderlies, they push past her and manhandle Jane, she's horrified when they restrain him to the bed. Jane's fighting against the restraints as they step back and watch him. The nurse turns her attention to Lisbon.

"I don't like to do it either but he's either going to hurt himself or someone else. The doctor's on his way."

The orderlies leave and the nurse and Lisbon watch Jane as he continues to fight against his restraints while still moaning and in obvious distress. Lisbon has moved to his side once more and is talking to him quietly, desperately hoping he will hear her and respond. It seems like an eternity but in reality is just a few minutes when the doctor arrives. He also takes his chart and studies it and moves towards Jane.

"This seems even worse than in recovery."

"Are you going to help him?"

The doctor looks at Lisbon.

"The only thing I can do is sedate him again. I know it's hard but he's in the process of waking up and we have to let him complete it. This is a nightmare he's having, it's not a seizure or anything medical. Perhaps it might be best if you wait outside until he's calm."

Lisbon shakes her head. There's no way she's leaving him alone like this. Whatever it is he seeing he needs a friendly face when he wakes up."

"I didn't think you would. It shouldn't be much longer, maybe half an hour or so. Talk to him softly and encourage him to wake up. The nurse will stay with you.

The doctor looks to the nurse for confirmation and she nods her head.

"I'll be back in half an hour, page me if he wakes up before then."

The nurse nods again and the doctor leaves. As Lisbon turns her full attention to Jane once more she see sweat trickling down his face. She goes into the bathroom and wets a hand towel. She hopes that it will not only cool him off but that the feel of it against his skin will calm him. It's hard for her to place it on his forehead as he throws his body as much as his restraints allow but she manages it and the sudden coolness stills him. He's breathing hard from his exertions. Lisbon strokes his arm and talks gently to him.

"Come on Jane wake up. The nightmare will go away if you wake up."

Suddenly his eyes pop open, but the horror in them suggests that he's still dreaming. It takes Lisbon by surprise and instinctively removes her hand and his eyes close and his back arches and he's in the midst of his terror once more. Lisbon runs to the bathroom again and runs the towel under the water once more. With the nurses help she manages to place it on his forehead with the same results. She talks softly to him again, encouraging him to wake up. His eyes open once more and then he blinks and his body stills. As his eyes meets Lisbon's she smiles at him.

"Hi."

Jane can't believe his eyes when he sees Lisbon and is certain he's still dreaming, which sends his stomach plummeting, he doesn't want Lisbon joining his nightmares. But other sensations tell him he's awake. Pain, hospital smells and kind voices. Lisbon sees the lingering terror of his nightmare in his eyes for a few moments before he recognises her.

"Hi. My plan worked then?"

He manages a little smile.

"You mean the one where you fainted?"

He nods his head just slightly

"That's the one."

Jane feels a sense of warmth flow through him as Lisbon smiles broadly at him.

"It worked a treat."

He moves a little and winces from pain..

"Not such a treat, you were suppose to stop her shooting me."

Lisbon shrugs.

"You're alive, that counts as a win for the good guys."

Jane smiles and lays back in to his pillow.

"It's good to be back."

He becomes aware of the restraints on his wrists and ankles. He tugs at them and looks to the nurse who's recording his vitals..

"What are these about? Can I get them off?."

"You were having a nightmare Mr. Jane and were thrashing around so violently we were worried you might injure yourself. I'm sorry I can't remove them without the doctor's permission, I've called him and he'll be here soon."

"It was bad Jane, I know you don't sleep well but I've never seen you like that before."

Jane lets out a sigh as the doctor enters the room.

"That's because I usually wake myself up, but I can't from these nightmares, or at least it's very difficult. You better leave them on nurse, it will happen again."

"That's not force to be the case Mr. Jane. The nightmares were probably a reaction to your trauma, now that you're safe they'll most likely stop."

"I wish that was the case."

He looks at Lisbon.

"She drugged me."

"We know. The doctor found a hallucinogenic in your bloodstream, but it's almost out of your system."

"That's not all. She said that she gave me something to lower my resistance towards hypnotism so she could influence my hallucinations. The nightmares won't go away unless we can find out the trigger that she used."

Lisbon can't believe what she's hearing.

"You mean your aunt has caused you to have these nightmares?"

"Yes of Charlotte and Angela, you know she's my aunt?."

"Yes and we know about her son and about the Rollins boys."

"So Rollins was their real name, I suspected as much."

"Do you remember them, they use to hang around your aunt at the carnival."

"You've talked to Pete."

The conversation is wearing Jane out and Lisbon and the doctor can both see it. The doctor jumps in.

"I think that's enough for now Agent Lisbon, the patient needs his rest."

Jane panics.

"No...no I'm fine, I'd rather stay awake, if you don't mind."

Lisbon looks at him concerned.

"Can't we get a hypnotist to reverse it?"

"It's not that simple, we need to know the trigger my aunt used."

"Oh Jane, your aunt is dead, the Rollins men too."

"Well that's going to make things more difficult."

The doctor inserts himself back in to the conversation.

"You need your rest Mr. Jane, I may have to sedate you again if it's the only way you can get it."

Lisbon doesn't like the idea.

"He'll only have the nightmares again as you wake him up."

"He can't just stay awake, Agent, it's not possible."

Jane, not liking any suggestion of falling asleep, is ignoring the conversation and considering a solution to the problem. An idea comes to him.

"Pete, he can help."

Lisbon looks at him confused.

"How can Pete help? He's not a hypnotist is he?"

Jane laughs and the winces.

"That makes a funny image. No, but Aunt Mae did a hypnotist act sometimes, not a big stage thing, but in a booth. Pete may have witnessed it. He could tell us what triggers she liked to use."

Lisbon looks skeptical.

"Do you really think he'll be able to remember?"

"He may not realise what he was watching but bring him here, I can talk to him and help him remember."

The doctor looks sharply at him.

"You're in no condition to question anyone Mr. Jane."

Jane looks wearily at the Doctor.

"Doctor...have we been introduced?"

The doctor looks apologetic.

"No, I'm sorry, my name's Doctor Jarvis."

"Yes I can see from your name tag."

The doctor gives him a tight smile.

"Of course you can."

"Doctor I appreciate all you've done for me, I can tell I need rest. It's a battle to keep my eyes open, but my wife and daughter were brutally killed by a serial killer called Red John. Have you heard of him?"

Doctor Jarvis nods.

"I seem to remember something about him."

"He cuts his victims open, viciously, as a doctor you can imagine the blood."

Doctor Jarvis nods.

"I found their bodies, a living nightmare that already tormented my sleep, but now it's even worse and every time I fall asleep they get more terrifying, more bloody, it's the way my dear aunt programmed them. I'm sure you can appreciate that the prospect of even one more dream is not something I look forward to."

Doctor Jarvis's stunned by what he's hearing. He looks at his patient, his matter of fact tone in juxtaposition to the horror he can see in his eyes. He turns to Lisbon.

"How quickly can you get him here?"

"It'll take two hours."


	13. Chapter 13

Lisbon hated leaving Jane but she knew that there was no point sending anyone else out to get Pete, she was their best chance at getting him to the hospital.

She bangs on the trailer door.

"Pete is Agent Lisbon, open up, Jane needs you."

She jumps when a voice comes from around the front of the trailer.

"Agent Lisbon, you're going to bang that door down and you'll have Sam's wroth to contend with. So Patrick needs my help again?"

"We found him, Mae had him. He's in hospital with numerous injuries but Mae did something to him, hypnotised him so he's has awful dreams. They are so bad they had to restrain him to stop him from hurting himself and they get worse each time."

"Wow, who would have thought that Mae was that good, I didn't thing anyone could hypnotize Patrick."

"She used drugs."

"So how can I possibly help?"

"Jane said Mae used to have a booth where she did some hypnotism."

Pete scratches his head.

"Yes. Yes she did, she would roll it out occasionally,"

"Did you ever watch her?"

"Sometimes, she even hypnotised me once…to help me lose weight."

He laughs.

"I think I managed to drop fifteen pounds. As I said she wasn't very good. Those must have been some powerful drugs she gave Patrick."

"We need to know the trigger she uses so we can get a hypnotist to undo it."

"Why not ask Mae, or did you lose her?"

"She's dead."

Pete spits on the ground.

"Good riddance."

Lisbon's getting impatient.

"You're our only option."

"Okay, let me get my jacket."

As Pete goes in to the trailer, Lisbon offers up a prayer of thanks and a plea that it will help.

When Pete enters Patrick's hospital room, it's obvious that he's in real trouble. Although Patrick's never been a big man, he looks shrunken under the blankets. His features are hollow, and his complexion grey caused by pain and weariness. He still summons up a smile as he clasps eyes on him.

"Hey Pete, good of you to come."

Pete approaches the bed.

"Well what else could I do, I can never resist the charms of a beautiful woman, even if she is a cop."

Jane closes his heavy eyes momentarily, his entire body and mind is screaming at him to sleep. He's using every mind trick in the book to keep himself from falling asleep. He reluctantly opens them and then closes them once more as the room spins. He counts to five before slowly opening then again. Pete and Lisbon are standing over him looking concerned.

"Jane are you all right?"

"Shall I get some one Patrick?"

"No, I'm fine, just a little dizziness that's passed. Since your here I take it you did watch Aunt Mae do her hypnotist routine?"

"As I told your protector here, she hypnotised me once, what good it did me."

Jane feels a surge of hope boosting his energy. Everyone looks to the door as it opens and the doctor and a woman enter the room.

"Oh good, shall we have a party?"

Lisbon hushes him.

"Behave yourself Jane."

"Mr. Jane, this is Doctor Caber, she's a skilled hypnotist and is here to help you. Is this your friend?"

Lisbon does the speaking for Jane, feeling she has to do something to help him.

"Yes, this is Pete. We just got here, so we haven't discovered what he knows."

Jane is staring at Doctor Caber, who steps forward.

"Hello Mr. Jane, I've heard about you and it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm not as skilled as you are at hypnotism but I hope I'll be able to help you."

Jane nods in response then turns his attention back to Pete.

"Pete what I'm looking for is when you saw Aunt Mae do her hypnotism she would have touched the subject in some way, on the shoulder, tapped the knee, placed her hand on their arm...or something like that, can you remember her doing anything like that?"

Lisbon notices Jane wincing as he moves his body slightly, she rests her hand on his arm.

"You're in pain Jane, do you want some medication."

Jane looks towards her.

"I'm fine Lisbon, the pain helps me stay awake.

He turns back to Pete, his movement slow and laboured.

"Can you remember?"

Pete shakes his head.

"I'm sorry Patty, it was so long ago."

This disappointment lays heavy in the room.

Doctor Jarvis is checking his notes and reading the machines. At the news he looks to Jane.

"Then I'm going to sedate you, you need to rest, this is hampering your recovery. We'll work on the problem while you're sleeping..."

Jane interrupts him.

"I don't want another nightmare doctor."

The desperation in his voice is clear for everyone to hear and tells Lisbon a lot about how tired he is that he's not masking it. An idea strikes her.

"Why don't we try re-enacting an hypnotism session, maybe that'll jog Pete's memory."

They all turn to look at her as if she's gone mad.

"Have Doctor Caber pretend to hypnotize me and see if Pete remembers anything."

Doctor Caber shrugs.

"Worth a shot."

Lisbon's feeling nervous as she faces Dr. Caber, She feels a little on display with all the spectators. All she needs to do though is look to Jane and see the struggle he's going through, to strengthen her resolve. He gives her a smile of encouragement and she turns towards the doctor.

"Are you comfortable Agent?"

Lisbon nods. The doctor smiles at her.

"Good, let's begin. I'm just going to put you into a relaxed state, nothing more. There's nothing to worry about."

Lisbon nods again trying not to think of all the times she's heard Jane say the same thing, knowing there was a lot to worry about.

She can't see Jane but he's smiling as he remembers how he had to trick her to relax when she asked him to hypnotize her, she'd been accused of murder and couldn't remember her movements at the time it took place. He can't hear what's going on as Doctor Caber is about to start. They discussed Jane not being present as he could still be susceptible to hypnosis suggestion. He argued that it would help keep him awake, an argument that didn't sway much with his doctor, who knows he desperately needs sleep and feels he should have sedated him hours ago, but he also pointed out his usefulness. Jane, of course, got his way and headphones were the compromise with Jane lip-reading to understand what's going on.

In reality Jane can't keep up with the lip-reading, the concentration required is too great. His eyes are burning and his body feels as if it's gone ten rounds with a heavyweight boxer. Looking at Lisbon, she's seems relaxed so he turns his attention to Pete. He's watching for any signs of recognition from him. He knows that something the doctor says or does may trigger a reaction in Pete that he's not aware of. Jane hopes he can read it, unlike lip-reading he doesn't have to work as hard, reading people is second nature to him.

After the doctor's finished they look to Pete but he shakes his head. Jane's taken off his headphones.

"There were four places where there was a reaction from Pete. I'll show you where on the playback."

They taped the session to prevent interruptions which would spoil the flow and, perhaps causing the doctor to miss some steps. Pete contradicts Jane.

"I'm sorry Patrick but I saw nothing there that I remembered from Aunt Mae. I think your desperation is causing you to see things."

Jane's shaking his head.

"You may not have recognised anything but your subconscious did."

Everyone is watching the tape, a wide-angle was set up to get Lisbon, Doctor Caber and Pete all in the frame. Everyone's there that is except for Pete, it was time for him to be getting back, he said. He'd been away from the carnival too long, he was needed. Truth was he couldn't take another moment at the hospital, something Jane understood, so he told Pete that there was nothing more he could do and thanked him for his help. Pete grabbed his arm and said with a voice husky with emotion:

"I hope it works buddy."

Jane patted his hand.

"So do I."

Jane's watching Pete on the screen and as soon as he sees a reaction he cries:

"Stop!"

Lisbon stops the recording and then backs it up a fraction. She presses play and Jane and the Doctor closely watch the monitor. After the fourth time Jane relaxes in to the pillows, a smile on his face. Lisbon looks at him and her face lights up.

"You've figured it out!"

Jane nods. Doctor Caber looks puzzled.

"I saw nothing. There were no triggers in the places you stopped the tape.

"It's not what you did, it's what you said."

"She used words as triggers?"

Jane nods, and Lisbon looks aghast.

"Then it could be anything, it'll be impossible to find the correct words? She could've used anything."

"Yes she could but she didn't"

Jane's eyes are shinning, the knowledge that he's there, that he's found it out, has sent adrenaline coursing through his body.

"I can't hear an Elvis song without being transported back to my carnival days, because his songs were constantly blaring out from the trailer a few doors down from ours. Aunt Mae's trailer. The words that Pete reacted to were - can't, I, just and help."

Lisbon's feeling frustrated with Jane's long-winded and non-sensical explanation.

"That helps up how Jane? They make no sense."

Doctor Caber interjects triumphantly.

"I just can't help believing!"

Jane touches his nose and points at the Doctor.

"Exactly doc. We have an Elvis fan."

"It's my mom's favourite song."

Lisbon's still frustrated.

"You're saying the trigger is an Elvis song, but there must be hundreds of them."

Jane turns to her.

"There are. I just can't help believing was one of Aunt Mae's favourites too, along with three others that she played constantly. My guess is her triggers were those four songs."

"But wouldn't that make some go into a trance every time they heard the song?"

Jane smiles.

"Triggers don't work that way or people would go in and out of a trance when some one touched them."

Lisbon shrugs.

"I don't get it, but only four sounds good odds."

"It is. Let's get to work doc."

It's the third song, It's now or never, that works. Lisbon watching the proceedings doesn't understand how they know but Jane's willing to sleep. A nurse injects his iv and within moments Jane's sleeping. His Doctor turns to her.

"He'll be asleep for hours, go home and get some rest. He'll be fine now."


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the final chapter. I hope you like it. Thanks for reading and for the kudos it's great to get them. They are a great encouragement to know that the story is being enjoyed.

Lisbon switches off the alarm. Sometimes the night passes too quickly but not this night, she feels rested and refreshed. She makes her way to the shower and gets herself ready for the day.

Her mood isn't quite as bright as when she first woke up, she's running fifteen minutes behind schedule caused by a major traffic jam because of a burst water pipe, but she's still feeling pretty good as she drums her fingers on the wheel waiting for the lights to change. As she tuns into the parking lot all her previous tension melts away at the smile that greets her. She pulls to a stop and the passenger side of the door's yanked open.

"Good morning Lisbon, running a little late today, but no matter I got to greet many of my neighbours that I don't usually get to see, and only a couple of them looked like felons."

"You're welcome Jane, I didn't mind getting caught in a three-mile tail back, just to come pick you up."

Jane beams.

"You're in a particularly good mood this morning Lisbon, I'm guessing it has something to do with your favourite partner starting back to work today."

Lisbon opts for sarcasm.

"Most definitely Jane because I've missed the added work your presence brings, the feathers I have to smooth, the D.A.'s I have to convince that it really is a usable confession, and the lawsuits I have to dodge…."

"Everything worth having comes at a price Lisbon."

"So you're worth having?"

Jane shrugs.

"I hope so, but I was talking about the bear claws from the bakery around the corner from my motel."

He removes a paper bag from his inside pocket and shakes it at her.

"I can never thank you enough for all you've done for me, but I hope this little token hits the spot."

Jane's recovery went without a problem after his nightmares disappeared (at least the planted ones). After a few days he felt well enough to make a statement. He said he didn't kill Jack Bowen, he was unconscious when it happened so he doesn't know if it was one of the Rollins boys or Aunt Mae. But since they're all dead it doesn't really matter. There's no evidence against Jane so the CIA are just going to have to suck it up. He did confess to making the phone call that took him and Rigsby up into the redwoods. He sheepishly admitted that he'd received a personal call telling him that someone had great information that could lead him to Red John. The instructions said to be there the next day at 11:10am or he wouldn't wait around.

"Do you think Jack Bowen made the call?"

Jane shrugged.

"I'm not sure, I never got a clear read on the guy. I certainly knew he was holding something back when I first met him, but he was also a very good liar, he was ex-CIA after all. It came second nature to him. I don't see any reason why he should make the call, unless he was working for someone else."

"It's quite a co-incidence if he didn't."

Jane nods in agreement.

"I hope this will be a lesson to you, not to waste police time."

When Jane and Lisbon arrive at the office there are shouts of welcome for the consultant. When they enter the elevator he beams at Lisbon.

"I didn't realise I was so popular."

"You're not, they're just being polite."

"I think you're just jealous."

"Whatever."

They look at each other out of the corner of their eyes.

"Good to have you back Jane."

Jane raises on his tiptoes, his hands in his pocket.

"It's good to be back."

The elevator comes to a stop on their floor and Jane holds back and lets Lisbon out first. As they enter the bullpen everyone breaks in to applause. Jane raises his hands to quiet them.

"Thank you everyone but there's no need. It's you guys that deserve my applause. I know all you did to find me and I really appreciate it and to show my appreciation it's dinner for everyone at Delforno's tonight at eight."

Everyone breaks into applause again. Lisbon turns to go to her office and Jane follows. She goes behind her desk and he stands in the door way. She looks up at him.

"That's a nice thing you've done."

Jane shrugs and walks further into the room.

"A little bird told me that you worked a bit of flim-flam on Agent Collins. Great job."

Lisbon colours a little.

"I would've been proud of it myself...well kind of...satisfied anyway...probably would've tweaked it a little in places...if you want me to show you how you could've done better.,..you know for next time..."

Jane ducks as a pencil whizzes by his ear.

He smiles and walks to the door and is met by a guy holding a bouquet of flowers. He turns to Lisbon once more.

"Just a little token of my thanks."

He lets the guy through and walks out the door and leaves Lisbon with the fifteen other bouquets that follow.


End file.
